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BEACOK  LIGHTS  OF  HISTOKY. 

i 


LORD'S  LECTURES 


BEACON   LIGHTS 

OF   HISTORY. 

Bt  JOHN  LORD,  LL.D., 

AUTHOR  OF  "  XHB  OLD  KOMAN  WOKLD,"  "  MOBBBK  BCKOPB,' 

ETC.,  ETC. 


Volume  I. 
THE  OLD  PAGAN  CIVILIZATIONS. 


New  York: 
JAMES    CLARKE    AND    CO. 


Copyrigli,  188S,  1888, 
Bt  John  Lobd. 


CT 
fo  I 

v,l 

Eo  tfje  Pletnots  of 
MARY  PORTER  LORD, 

WHOSK    FEIENDSHIP    AND    APPRECIATION 

AS    A   DEVOTED   WIPE 

ENCOURAGED     ME    TO     A    LONG     LIFE 

OP   HISTORICAL    LABORS, 

Cljis  SlHorft 

IS   GRATEFULLY   AND    AFFECTIONATELY   DEDICATED 
BY   THE   AUTHOR. 


1462681 


PUBLISHERS'   NOTE. 


IN  preparing  a  new  edition  of  Dr.  Lord's  great  work, 
the  "Beacon  Lights  of  History,"  it  has  been  nec- 
essary to  make  some  rearrangement  of  lectures  and 
volumes.  Dr.  Lord  began  with  his  volume  on  classic 
"  Antiquity,"  and  not  until  he  had  completed  five  vol- 
umes did  he  return  to  the  remoter  times  of  *'  Old  Pagan 
Civilizations "  (reaching  back  to  Assyria  and  Egypt) 
and  the  "  Jewish  Heroes  and  Prophets."  These  issued, 
he  took  up  again  the  line  of  great  men  and  movements, 
and  brought  it  down  to  modern  days. 

The  "  Old  Pagan  Civilizations,"  of  course,  stretch 
thousands  of  years  before  the  Hebrews,  and  the  volume 
so  entitled  would  naturally  be  the  first.  Then  follows 
the  volume  on  "  Jewish  Heroes  and  Prophets,"  ending 
with  St.  Paul  and  the  Christian  Era.  After  this  volume, 
which  in  any  position,  dealing  with  the  unique  race  of 
the  Jews,  must  stand  by  itself,  we  return  to  the  brilliant 
picture  of  the  Pagan  centuries,  in  "  Ancient  Achieve- 
ments" and  "Imperial  Antiquity,"  the  latter  coming 
down  to  the  Fall  of  Rome  in  the  fourth  century  a.d., 
which  ends  the  era  of  "  Antiquity "  and  begins  the 
"Middle  Ages." 

Nbw  Yokk,  September  15,  1902. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


IT  has  been  my  object  in  these  Lectures  to  give  the 
substance  of  accepted  knowledge  pertaining  to  the 
leading  events  and  characters  of  history;  and  in  treating 
such  a  variety  of  subjects,  extending  over  a  period  of 
more  than  six  thousand  years,  each  of  which  might  fill  a 
volume,  I  have  sought  to  present  what  is  true  rather  than 
what  is  new. 

Although  most  of  these  Lectures  have  been  delivered, 
in  some  form,  during  the  last  forty  years,  in  most  of  the 
cities  and  in  many  of  the  literary  institutions  of  this 
country,  I  have  carefully  revised  them  within  the  last 
few  years,  in  order  to  avail  myself  of  the  latest  light 
shed  on  the  topics  and  times  of  which  they  treat. 

The  revived  and  wide-spread  attention  given  to  the 
study  of  the  Bible,  under  the  stimulus  of  recent  Oriental 
travels  and  investigations,  not  only  as  a  volume  of  re- 
ligious guidance,  but  as  an  authentic  record  of  most 
interesting  and  important  events,  has  encouraged  me  to 
include  a  series  of  Lectures  on  some  of  the  remarkable 
men  identified  with  Jewish  history. 

Of  course  I  have  not  aimed  at  an  exhaustive  criticism 
in  these  Biblical  studies,  since  the  topics  cannot  be  ex- 
hausted even  by  the  most  learned  scholars ;  but  I  have 
sought  to  interest  intelligent  Christians  by  a  continuous 

VOL.  I.  —  b 


10  PREFACE. 

narrative,  interweaving  with  it  the  latest  accessible  knowl- 
edge bearing  on  the  main  subjects.  If  I  have  persisted  in 
adhering  to  the  truths  that  have  been  generally  accepted 
for  nearly  two  thousand  years,  I  have  not  disregarded 
the  light  which  has  been  recently  shed  on  important 
points  by  the  great  critics  of  the  progressive  schools. 

I  have  not  aimed  to  be  exhaustive,  or  to  give  minute 
criticism  on  comparatively  unimportant  points  ;  but  the 
passions  and  interests  which  have  agitated  nations,  the 
ideas  which  great  men  have  declared,  and  the  institutions 
which  have  grown  out  of  them,  have  not,  I  trust,  been  un- 
candidly  described,  nor  deductions  from  them  illogically 
made. 

Inasmuch  as  the  interest  in  the  development  of  those 
great  ideas  and  movements  which  we  call  Civilization 
centres  in  no  slight  degree  in  the  men  who  were  identified 
with  them,  I  have  endeavored  to  give  a  faithful  picture 
of  their  lives  in  connection  with  the  eras  and  institutions 
which  they  represent,  whether  they  were  philosophers, 
ecclesiastics,  or  men  of  action. 

And  that  we  may  not  lose  sight  of  the  precious  boons 
which  illustrious  benefactors  have  been  instrumental  in 
bestowing  upon  mankind,  it  has  been  my  chief  object  to 
present  their  services,  whatever  may  have  been  their 
defects;  since  it  is  for  services  that  most  great  men  are 
ultimately  judged,  especially  kings  and  rulers.  These 
services,  certainly,  constitute  the  gist  of  history,  and  it 
is  these  which  I  have  aspired  to  show. 

JOHN  LORD. 


VOL.  I. 
THE  OLD  PAGAN  CIVILIZATIONS. 


co:n^te:n^ts. 


ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

Egyptian,  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  and  Persian. 

Paob 

Ancient  religions 27 

Christianity  not  progressive 28 

Jewish  monotheism 29 

Religion  of  Egypt 81 

Its  great  antiquity 31 

Its  essential  features 82 

Complexity  of  Egyptian  polytheism 83 

Egyptian  deities 33 

The  worship  of  the  sun 34 

The  priestly  caste  of  Egypt 35 

Power  of  the  priests 36 

Future  rewards  and  punishments 36 

Morals  of  the  Egyptians 37 

Functions  of  the  priests 87 

Egj'ptian  ritual  of  worship 88 

Transmigration  of  souls 89 

Animal  worship 39 

Effect  of  Egyptian  polytheism  on  the  Jews 41 

AssjTian  deities 43 


14  CONTENTS. 


Pagb 

Phoenician  deities 48 

Worship  of  the  sun 49 

Oblations  and  sacrifices 49 

Idolatry  the  sequence  of  polytheism 52 

Religion  of  the  Persians 53 

Character  of  the  early  Iranians 54 

Comparative  purity  of  the  Persian  religion 56 

Zoroaster 56 

Magism 58 

Zend-Avesta 59 

Dualism 62 

Authorities 64 


RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 
Brahmanism  and  Buddhism. 

Religions  of  India 67 

Antiquity  of  Brahmanism 68 

Sanskrit  literature 69 

The  Aryan  races 70 

Original  religior  of  the  Aryans 78 

Aryan  migrations 74 

The  Vedas 74 

Ancient  deities  of  India 75 

Laws  of  Menu 76,  78 

Hindu  pantheism 77 

Corruption  of  Brahmanism 79,  83 

The  Brahmanical  caste 80 

Character  of  the  Brahmans 82 

Rise  of  Buddhism 84 

Gautama .•...86 


CONTENTS.  15 


Pace 

Experiences  of  Gautama • 86 

Travels  of  Buddha 90 

His  religious  system 91 

Spread  of  his  doctrine 91 

Buddhism  a  reaction  against  Brahmanism 92 

Nirvana 98 

Gloominess  of  Buddhism 94 

Buddhism  as  a  reform  of  morals 96 

Sayings  of  Siddartha 98 

His  rules 99 

Failure  of  Buddhism  in  India 102 

Authorities 103 


RELIGION    OF    THE    GREEKS  AND    ROMANS. 

Classic  Mythology. 

Religion  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans 107 

Greek  myths 108 

Greek  priests 108 

Greek  divinities 109 

Greek  polytheism 110 

Greek  mythology HI 

Adoption  of  Oriental  fables Ill 

Greek  deities  the  creation  of  poets 113 

Peculiarities  of  the  Greek  gods 114 

The  Olympian  deities 115-119 

The  minor  deities 119 

The  Greeks  indifferent  to  a  future  state 122 

Augustine  view  of  heathen  deities 123 

Artists  vie  with  poets  in  conceptions  of  divine  power  .     .     .  1 24 

Temple  of  Zeus  in  Olympia 124 


16  CONTENTS. 


Pasb 

Greek  feetivals 126 

!No  sacred  books  among  the  Greeks 127 

A  religion  without  deities 132 

Roman  divinities 137 

Peculiarities  of  Koman  worship 138 

Ritualism  and  hypocrisy 139 

Character  of  the  Roman 140 

Authorities 141 


CONFUCIUS. 

Sage  and  Moralist. 

Early  condition  of  China 146 

Youth  of  Confucius 147 

His  public  life 148 

His  reforms 150 

His  fame 151 

His  wanderings 151 

His  old  age 152 

His  writings 153 

His  philosophy 158 

His  definition  of  a  superior  man 159 

His  ethics 160,  162 

His  views  of  government 161 

His  veneration  for  antiquity 163 

His  beautiful  character 165 

His  encouragement  of  learning     . 166 

His  character  as  statesman 167 

His  exaltation  of  filial  piety 169 

His  exaltation  of  friendship 171 

The  supremacy  of  the  State 172 


CONTENTS.  17 


Pass 

Necessity  of  good  men  in  office 172 

Peaceful  policy  of  Confucius 173 

Veneration  for  his  writings 1 74 

His  posthumous  influence 1 75 

Lao-tse i 177 

Authorities 179 


ANCIENT   PHILOSOPHY. 

Seeking  after  Truth. 

Intellectual  superiority  of  the  Greeks 183 

Early  progress  of  philosophy 185 

The  Greek  philosophy 185 

The  Ionian  Sophoi 186 

Thales  and  his  principles 187 

Anaximenes 189 

Diogenes  of  Apollonia 190 

Heraclitus  of  Ephesus 191 

Anaxagoras 192 

Anaximander 194 

Pythagoras  and  his  school 197 

Xenophanes 198 

Zeno  of  Elea 201 

Empedocles  and  the  Eleatics 201 

Loftiness  of  the  Greek  philosopher 203 

Progress  of  scepticism 204 

The  Sophists 205 

Socrates 207 

His  exposure  of  error 209 

Socrates  as  moralist 210 

The  method  of  Socrates 213 


18  CONTENTS. 


Paqb 

His  services  to  philosophy 214 

His  disciples 215 

Plato 216 

Ideas  of  Plato 218 

Archer  Butler  on  Plato 221 

Aristotle 222 

His  services 226 

The  syllogism 227 

The  Epicureans 229 

Sir  James  Mackintosh  on  Epicurus 230 

The  Stoics 231 

Zeno 231 

Principles  of  the  Stoical  philosophy 233 

Philosophy  among  the  Romans 237 

Cicero 238 

Epictetus 240 

Authorities 245 


SOCRATES. 

Greek  Philosophy. 

Mission  of  Socrates 250 

Era  of  his  birth ;  view  of  his  times 251 

His  personal  appearance  and  peculiarities   ....       252,  253 

His  lofty  moral  character 254 

His  sarcasm  and  ridicule  of  opponents 255 

The  Sophists 255 

Neglect  of  his  family 256 

His  friendship  with  distinguished  people 257 

His  philosophic  method 258 

His  questions  and  definitions 269 

His  contempt  of  theories 260 


CONTENTS.  19 


Page 

Imperfection  of  contemporaneous  physical  science     .     .     .  260 

The  Ionian  philosophers 261 

Socrates  bases  truth  on  consciousness 262 

Uncertainty  of  physical  inquiries  in  his  day 262 

Superiority  of  moral  truth ,     .     .     .  263 

Happiness,  Virtue,  Knowledge,  —  the  Socratic  trinity    .     .  264 

The  "  dEemon  "  of  Socrates 265 

His  idea  of  God  and  Immortality 268 

Socrates  a  witness  and  agent  of  God 270 

Socrates  compared  with  Buddha  and  Marcus  Aurelius    .     .  270 
His  resemblance  to  Christ  in  life  and  teachings     .     .       271,272 

Unjust  charges  of  his  enemies 273 

His  unpopularity 274 

His  trial  and  defence 275 

His  audacity 276 

His  condemnation 277 

The  dignity  of  his  last  hours 278 

His  easy  death 279 

Tardy  repentance  of  the  Athenians  ;  statue  by  Lysippus     .  279 

Posthumous  influence 280 

Authorities 280 

PHIDIAS. 

Greek  Art. 

General  popular  interest  in  Art 283 

Principles  on  which  it  is  based 284 

Phidias  taken  merely  as  a  text 284 

Not  much  known  of  his  personal  history 285 

His  most  famous  statues ;  Minerva  and  Olympian  Jove  .     •  285 

His  peculiar  excellences  as  a  sculptor 286 

Definitions  of  the  word  "  Art " 287 

Its  representation  of  ideas  of  beauty  and  grace      ....  288 


20  CONTENTS. 


Pagb 

The  glory  and  dignity  of  art 289-291 

The  connection  of  plastic  with  literary  art  .     .     .     .       292,  298 

Architecture,  the  first  expression  of  art 294 

Peculiarities  of  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  architecture  •  .  .  294 
Ancient  temples,  tombs,  pyramids,  and  palaces     ....     295 

General  features  of  Grecian  architecture 296 

The  Doric,  Ionic,  and  Corinthian  orders      ....        297,  298 

Simplicity  and  beauty  of  their  proportions 299 

The  horizontal  lines  of  Greek  and  the  vertical  Unes  of 

Gothic  architecture 300,  301 

AssjTian,  Egyptian,  and  Indian  sculpture 302 

Superiority  of  Greek  sculpture 302 

Ornamentation  of  temples  with  statues  of  gods,  heroes,  and 

distinguished  men SOS 

The  great  sculptors  of  antiquity 804 

Their  ideal  excellence 305 

Antiquity  of  painting  in  Babylon  and  Egypt 306 

Its  gradual  development  in  Greece 306 

Famous  Grecian  painters 307-309 

Decline  of  art  among  the  Romans 310 

Art  as  seen  in  literature I     .     .     311 

Literature  not  permanent  without  art 312 

Artists  as  a  class 813 

Art  a  refining  influence  rather  than  a  moral  power  .  314,  315 
Authorities 316 

LITERARY  GENIUS. 

The  Greek  and  Roman  Classics. 

Richness  of  Greek  classic  poetry 321 

Homer 322 

Greek  lyrical  poetry 323 

Pindar 823 


CONTENTS.  21 


Vksa 

Dramatic  poetry 324 

^schylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides 325-338 

Greek  comedy  :  Aristophanes 328 

Roman  poetry 380 

Naevius,  Plautus,  Terence 831,  334 

Roman  epic  poetry  :  Virgil 835 

Lyrical  poetry  :  Horace,  Catullus 336-338 

Didactic  poetry  :  Lucretius 338 

Elegiac  poetry  :  Ovid,  Tibullus 339-341 

Satire  :  Horace,  Martial,  Juvenal 842,  343 

Perfection  of  Greek  prose  writers 344 

History :  Herodotus 345 

Thucydides,  Xenophon 347-349 

Roman  historians 849 

Julius  Caesar 351 

Livy 853 

Tacitus S54 

Orators 860 

Pericles 362 

Demosthejies 363 

^schines 865 

Cicero 366 

Learned  men  :  Varro 371 

Seneca 372 

Quintilian 873 

Lucian 374 

Authorities 377 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Volume  I. 

Pagk 

Agapd,  or  Love  Feast  among  the  Early  Christians  Frontispiece 

After  the  painting  by  J.  A.  Mazerolle. 

Procession  of  the  Sacred  Bull  Apis-Osiris 41 

After  tfie  painting  by  E.  F.  Bridgman. 

Driving  Sacrificial  Victims  into  the  Fiery  Mouth  of  Baal .      51 

After  the  painting  by  Henri  ITotte. 

Apollo  Belvedere 137 

From  a  photograph  of  the  statue  in  the  Vatican,  Some. 

Confucian  Temple,  Forbidden  City,  Pekin 177 

F7-om  a  photograph. 

The  School  of  Plato 215 

After  the  painting  by  0.  Knille. 

Socrates  Instructing  Alcibiades 257 

After  the  painting  by  H.  F.  Schopin. 

Socrates 275 

From  the  bust  in  the  National  Museum,  Naples. 

Pericles  and  Aspasia  in  the  Studio  of  Phidias    ....     293 

After  the  painting  by  Hector  Le  lioux. 

Zeuxis  Choosing  Models  from  among  the  Beauties  of 

Kroton  for  his  Picture  of  Helen 309 

After  the  painting  by  E.  Pagliano. 

Homer 323 

From  the  bust  in  the  National  Museum,  Naples. 

Demosthenes 363 

From  the  statue  in  the  Vatican,  Borne. 


ANCIENT    RELIGIONS: 

EGYFTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  BABYLONIAN,  AND  PERSIAN. 


BEACON   LIGHTS 
OF   HISTORY. 


ANCIENT   RELIGIONS: 

EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  BABYLONIAN,  AND  PERSIAN. 

IT  is  my  object  in  this  book  on  the  old  Pagan 
civilizations  to  present  the  salient  points  only, 
since  an  exhaustive  work  is  impossible  within  the 
limits  of  these  volumes.  The  practical  end  which 
I  have  in  view  is  to  collate  a  sufficient  number  of 
acknowledged  facts  from  which  to  draw  sound  infer- 
ences in  reference  to  the  progress  of  the  human  race, 
and  the  comparative  welfare  of  nations  in  ancient 
and  modern  times. 

The  first  inquiry  we  naturally  make  is  in  regard 
to  the  various  religious  systems  which  were  accepted 
by  the  ancient  nations,  since  religion,  in  some  form 
or  other,  is  the  most  universal  of  institutions,  and  has 
had  the  earliest  and  the  greatest  influence  on  the  con- 
dition and  life  of  peoples  —  that  is  to  say,  on  their 
vox,.  I.  —  1 


28  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

civilizations  —  in  every  period  of  the  world.  And, 
necessarily,  considering  what  is  the  object  in  religion, 
when  we  undertake  to  examine  any  particular  form 
of  it  which  has  obtained  among  any  people  or  at  any 
period  of  time,  we  must  ask,  How  far  did  its  priests 
and  sages  teach  exalted  ideas  of  Deity,  of  the  soul, 
and  of  immortality  ?  How  far  did  they  arrive  at 
lofty  and  immutable  principles  of  morality  ?  How 
far  did  religion,  such  as  was  taught,  practically  affect 
the  lives  of  those  who  professed  it,  and  lead  them  to 
just  and  reasonable  treatment  of  one  another,  or  to 
holy  contemplation,  or  noble  deeds,  or  sublime  repose 
in  anticipation  of  a  higher  and  endless  life  ?  And 
how  did  the  various  religions  compare  with  what 
we  believe  to  be  the  true  religion  —  Christianity  —  in 
its  pure  and  ennobling  truths,  its  inspiring  promises, 
and  its  quiet  influence  in  changing  and  developing 
character  ? 

I  assume  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  progres- 
sive Christianity,  except  in  so  far  as  mankind  grow 
in  the  realization  of  its  lofty  principles;  that  there 
has  not  been  and  will  not  be  any  improvement  on 
the  ethics  and  spiritual  truths  revealed  by  Jesus  the 
Christ,  but  that  they  will  remain  forever  the  stand- 
ard of  faith  and  practice.  I  assume  also  that  Chris- 
tianity has  elements  which  are  not  to  be  found  in 
any  other  religion,  —  such  as  original  teachings,  divine 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN       29 

revelations,  and  sublime  truths.  I  know  it  is  the 
fashion  with  many  thinkers  to  maintain  that  improve- 
ments on  the  Christian  system  are  both  possible  and 
probable,  and  that  there  is  scarcely  a  truth  which 
Christ  and  his  apostles  declared  which  cannot  be 
found  in  some  other  ancient  religion,  when  divested 
of  the  errors  there  incorporated  with  it  This  notion  I 
repudiate.  I  believe  that  systems  of  religion  are  per- 
fect or  imperfect,  true  or  false,  just  so  far  as  they  agree 
or  disagree  with  Christianity ;  and  that  to  the  end  of 
time  all  systems  are  to  be  measured  by  the  Christian 
standard,  and  not  Christianity  by  any  other  system. 

The  oldest  religion  of  which  we  have  clear  and  au- 
thentic account  is  probably  the  pure  monotheism  held 
by  the  Jews.  Some  nations  have  claimed  a  higher  anti- 
quity for  their  religion — like  the  Egyptians  and  Chinese 
—  than  that  which  the  sacred  writings  of  the  He- 
brews show  to  have  been  communicated  to  Abraham, 
and  to  earlier  men  of  God  treated  of  in  those  Scrip- 
tures; but  their  claims  are  not  entitled  to  our  full 
credence.  We  are  in  doubt  about  them.  The  origin 
of  religions  is  enshrouded  in  mystical  darkness,  and 
is  a  mere  speculation.  Authentic  history  does  not 
go  back  far  enough  to  settle  this  point.  The  primi- 
tive religion  of  mankind  I  believe  to  have  been  re- 
vealed to  inspired  men,  who,  like  Shem,  walked  with 
God.     Adam,  in  paradise,  knew  who  God  was,  for  he 


80  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

heard  His  voice ;  and  so  did  Enoch  and  Noah,  and, 
more  clearly  than  all,  Abraham.  They  believed  in  a 
personal  God,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  infinite 
in  power,  supreme  in  goodness,  without  beginning  and 
without  end,  who  exercises  a  providential  oversight 
of  the  world  which  he  mada 

It  is  certainly  not  unreasonable  to  claim  the  greatest 
purity  and  loftiness  in  the  monotheistic  faith  of  the 
Hebrew  patriarchs,  as  handed  down  to  his  children  by 
Abraham,  over  that  of  all  other  founders  of  ancient 
rehgious  systems,  not  only  since  that  faith  was,  as  we 
believe,  supernaturally  communicated,  but  since  the 
fruit  of  that  stock,  especially  in  its  Christian  develop- 
ment, is  superior  to  all  others.  This  sublime  mono- 
theism was  ever  maintained  by  the  Hebrew  race,  in 
all  their  wanderings,  misfortunes,  and  triumphs,  except 
on  occasions  when  they  partially  adopted  the  gods 
of  those  nations  with  whom  they  came  in  contact, 
and  by  whom  they  were  corrupted  or  enslaved. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  the  religion  of 
the  Jews  in  this  connection,  since  it  is  treated  in 
other  volumes  of  this  series,  and  since  everybody  has 
access  to  the  Bible,  the  earlier  portions  of  which  give 
the  true  account  not  only  of  the  Hebrews  and  their 
special  progenitor  Abraham,  but  of  the  origin  of  the 
earth  and  of  mankind;  and  most  intelligent  persons 
are  familiar  with  its  details. 


EGYPTIAN.  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.       31 

I  begin  my  description  of  ancient  religions  with 
those  systems  with  which  the  Jews  were  more  or  less 
famihar,  and  by  which  they  were  more  or  less  influ- 
enced. And  whether  these  religions  were,  as  I  think, 
themselves  corrupted  forms  of  the  primitive  revelation 
to  primitive  man,  or,  as  is  held  by  some  philosophers 
of  to-day,  natural  developments  out  of  an  original 
worship  of  the  powers  of  Nature,  of  ghosts  of  an- 
cestral heroes,  of  tutelar  deities  of  household,  family, 
tribe,  nation,  and  so  forth,  it  will  not  affect  their  re- 
lation to  my  plan  of  considering  this  background  of 
history  in  its  effects  upon  modern  times,  through 
Judaism  and  Christianity. 

The  first  which  naturally  claims  our  attention  is 
the  religion  of  ancient  Egypt.  But  I  can  show  only 
the  main  features  and  characteristics  of  this  form  of 
paganism,  avoiding  the  complications  of  their  system 
and  their  perplexing  names  as  much  as  possible.  I 
wish  to  present  what  is  ascertained  and  intelligible 
rather  than  what  is  ingenious  and  obscure. 

The  religion  of  Egypt  is  very  old,  —  how  old  we  can- 
not tell  with  certainty.  We  know  that  it  existed  be- 
fore Abraham,  and  with  but  few  changes,  for  at  least 
two  thousand  years.  Mariette  places  the  era  of  the 
first  Egyptian  dynasty  under  Menes  at  5004  B.  c.  It 
is  supposed  that  the  earhest  form  of  the  Egyptian  re- 


32  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

ligion  was  monotheistic,  such  as  was  known  later,  how- 
ever, only  to  a  few  of  the  higher  priesthood.  What 
the  esoteric  wisdom  really  was  we  can  only  conjec- 
ture, since  there  are  no  sacred  ^Dooks  or  writings  that 
have  come  down  to  us,  like  the  Indian  Vedas  and  the 
Persian  Zend-Avesta.  Herodotus  affirms  that  he  knew 
the  mysteries,  but  he  did  not  reveal  them. 

But  monotheism  was  lost  sight  of  in  Egypt  at  an 
earlier  period  than  the  beginning  of  authentic  history. 
It  is  the  fate  of  all  institutions  to  become  corrupt,  and 
this  is  particularly  true  of  religious  systems.  The 
reason  of  this  is  not  difficult  to  explain.  The  Bible 
and  human  experience  fully  exhibit  the  course  of  this 
degradation.  Hence,  before  Abraham's  visit  to  Egypt 
the  religion  of  that  land  had  degenerated  into  a  gross 
and  complicated  polytheism,  which  it  was  apparently 
for  the  interest  of  the  priesthood  to  perpetuate. 

The  Egyptian  religion  was  the  worship  of  the  powers 
of  Nature,  —  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  planets,  the  air,  the 
storm,  light,  fire,  the  clouds,  the  rivers,  the  lightning, 
all  of  which  were  supposed  to  exercise  a  mysterious 
influence  over  human  destiny.  There  was  doubtless 
an  indefinite  sense  of  awe  in  view  of  the  wonders  of 
the  material  universe,  extending  to  a  vague  fear  of 
some  almighty  supremacy  over  all  that  could  be  seen 
or  known.  To  these  powers  of  Nature  the  Egyptians 
gave  names,  and  made  them  divinities. 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.       33 

The  Egyptian  polytheism  was  complex  and  even  con- 
tradictory. What  it  lost  in  logical  sequence  it  gained 
in  variety.  Wilkinson  enumerates  seventy-three  prin- 
cipal divinities,  and  Birch  sixty-three ;  but  there  were 
some  hundreds  of  lesser  gods,  discharging  peculiar 
functions  and  presiding  over  different  localities.  Every 
town  had  its  guardian  deity,  to  whom  prayers  or  sacri- 
fices were  offered  by  the  priests.  The  more  compli- 
cated the  religious  rites  the  more  firmly  cemented 
was  the  power  of  the  priestly  caste,  and  the  more 
indispensable  were  priestly  services  for  the  offerings 
and  propitiations. 

Of  these  Egyptian  deities  there  were  eight  of  the 
first  rank;  but  the  list  of  them  differs  according  to 
different  writers,  since  in  the  great  cities  different 
deities  were  worshipped.  These  were  Ammon  —  the 
concealed  god,  —  the  sovereign  over  all  (correspond- 
ing to  the  Jupiter  of  the  Romans),  whose  sacred  city 
was  Thebes.  At  a  later  date  this  god  was  identified 
with  Ammon  Ea,  the  physical  sun.  Ra  was  the  sun- 
god,  especially  worshipped  at  Heliopolis,  —  the  sym- 
bol of  light  and  heat.  Kneph  was  the  spirit  of  God 
moving  over  the  face  of  the  waters,  whose  principal 
seat  of  worship  was  in  Upper  Egypt.  Phtha  was 
a  sort  of  artisan  god,  who  made  the  sun,  moon,  and 
the  earth,  "the  father  of  beginnings;"  his  sign  was 
the  scarabseus,  or  beetle,  and  his  patron  city  was  Mem- 


34  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

phis.  Khem  was  the  generative  principle  presiding 
over  the  vegetable  world,  —  the  giver  of  fertility  and 
lord  of  the  harvest.  These  deities  are  supposed  to 
have  represented  spirit  passing  into  matter  and  form, 
—a  process  of  divine  incarnation. 

But  the  most  popular  deity  was  Osiris.  His  image 
is  found  standing  on  the  oldest  monument,  a  form 
of  Ea,  the  light  of  the  lower  world,  and  king  and 
judge  of  Hades.  His  worship  was  universal  through- 
out Egypt,  but  his  chief  temples  were  at  Abydos  and 
Philae.  He  was  regarded  as  mild,  beneficent,  and  good. 
In  opposition  to  him  were  Set,  malignant  and  evU,  and 
Bes,  the  god  of  death.  Isis,  the  wife  and  sister  of 
Osiris,  was  a  sort  of  sun  goddess,  representing  the 
productive  power  of  Nature.  Khons  was  the  moon 
god.  Maut,  the  consort  of  Ammon,  represented  Na- 
ture. Sati,  the  wife  of  Kneph,  bore  a  resemblance  to 
Juno.  Nut  was  the  goddess  of  the  firmament;  Ma 
was  the  goddess  of  truth;  Horus  was  the  mediator 
between  creation  and  destruction. 

But  in  spite  of  the  multiplicity  of  deities,  the  Egyp- 
tian worship  centred  in  some  form  upon  heat  or  fire, 
generally  the  sun,  the  most  powerful  and  brilliant  of 
the  forces  of  Nature.  Among  all  the  ancient  pagan 
nations  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  planets,  under 
different  names,  whether  impersonated  or  not,  were 
the  principal  objects  of  worship  for  the  people.     To 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      35 

these  temples  were  erected,  statues  raised,  and  sac- 
rifices made. 

No  ancient  nation  was  more  devout,  or  more  con- 
stant to  the  service  of  its  gods,  than  were  the  Egyptians ; 
and  hence,  being  superstitious,  they  were  pre-eminently 
under  the  control  of  priests,  as  the  people  were  in 
India.  We  see,  chiefly  in  India  and  Egypt,  the  power 
of  caste, — tyrannical,  exclusive,  and  pretentious, — and 
powerful  in  proportion  to  the  belief  in  a  future  state. 
Take  away  the  belief  in  future  existence  and  future 
rewards  and  punishments,  and  there  is  not  much  re- 
ligion left.  There  may  be  philosophy  and  morality, 
but  not  religion,  which  is  based  on  the  fear  and  love 
of  God,  and  the  destiny  of  the  soul  after  death.  Saint 
Augustine,  in  his  "  City  of  God,"  his  greatest  work, 
ridicules  all  gods  who  are  not  able  to  save  the  soul, 
and  all  religions  where  future  existence  is  not  recog- 
nized as  the  most  important  thing  which  can  occupy 
the  mind  of  man. 

"We  cannot  then  utterly  despise  the  religion  of 
Egypt,  in  spite  of  the  absurdities  mingled  with  it, — 
the  multiplicity  of  gods  and  the  doctrine  of  metem- 
psychosis, —  since  it  included  a  distinct  recognition  of 
a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments  "accord- 
ing to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body."  On  this  belief 
rested  the  power  of  the  priests,  who  were  supposed  to 
intercede  with  the   deities,  and  who  alone   were  ap- 


36  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

pointed  to  offer  to  them  sacrifices,  in  order  to  gain 
their  favor  or  deprecate  their  wrath.  The  idea  of 
death  and  judgment  was  ever  present  to  the  thoughts 
of  the  Egyptians,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  and 
must  have  modified  their  conduct,  stimulating  them 
to  virtue,  and  restraining  them  from  vice;  for  virtue 
and  vice  are  not  revelations,  —  they  are  instincts 
implanted  in  the  soul.  No  ancient  teacher  enjoined 
the  duties  based  on  an  immutable  morality  with  more 
force  than  Confucius,  Buddha,  and  Epictetus.  Who 
in  any  land  or  age  has  ignored  the  duties  of  filial 
obedience,  respect  to  rulers,  kindness  to  the  miserable, 
protection  to  the  weak,  honesty,  benevolence,  sincerity, 
and  truthfulness  ?  With  the  discharge  of  these  duties, 
written  on  the  heart,  have  been  associated  the  favor  of 
the  gods,  and  happiness  in  the  future  world,  whatever 
errors  may  have  crept  into  theological  dogmas  and 
speculations. 

Believing  then  in  a  future  state,  where  sin  would 
be  punished  and  virtue  rewarded,  and  believing  in  it 
firmly  and  piously,  the  ancient  Egyptians  were  a  peace- 
ful and  comparatively  moral  people.  All  writers  admit 
their  industry,  their  simplicity  of  life,  their  respect 
for  law,  their  loyalty  to  priests  and  rulers.  Hence 
there  was  permanence  to  their  institutions,  for  rapine, 
violence,  and  revolution  were  rare.  They  were  not 
warlike,  although  often  engaged  in  war  by  the  com- 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.       37 

mand  of  ambitious  kings.  Generally  the  policy  of 
their  government  was  conservative  and  pacific.  Mili- 
tary ambition  and  thirst  for  foreign  conquest  were 
not  the  pecuhar  sins  of  Egyptian  kings;  they  sought 
rather  to  develop  national  industries  and  resources. 
The  occupation  of  the  people  was  in  agriculture  and 
the  useful  arts,  which  last  they  carried  to  considera- 
ble perfection,  especially  in  the  working  of  metals, 
textile  fabrics,  and  ornamental  jewelry.  Their  grand 
monuments  were  not  triumphal  -arches,  but  temples 
and  mausoleums.  Even  the  pyramids  may  have  been 
built  to  preserve  the  bodies  of  kings  until  the  soul 
should  be  acquitted  or  condemned,  and  therefore  more 
religious  in  their  uses  than  as  mere  emblems  of  pride 
and  power;  and  when  monuments  were  erected  to 
perpetuate  the  fame  of  princes,  their  supreme  design 
was  to  receive  the  engraven  memorials  of  the  virtu- 
ous deeds  of  kings  as  fathers  of  the  people. 

The  priests,  whose  business  it  was  to  perform  re- 
ligious rites  and  ceremonies  to  the  various  gods  of  the 
Egyptians,  were  extremely  numerous.  They  held  the 
highest  social  rank,  and  were  exempt  from  taxes.  They 
were  clothed  in  white  linen,  which  was  kept  scrupu- 
lously clean.  They  washed  their  whole  bodies  twice 
a  day ;  they  shaved  the  head,  and  wore  no  beard. 
They  practised  circumcision,  v/hich  rite  was  of  ex- 
treme antiquity,  existing  in  Egypt  two  thousand  four 


88  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  at  least  four  hun- 
dred years  before  Abraham,  and  has  been  found  among 
primitive  peoples  all  over  the  world.  They  did  not 
make  a  show  of  sanctity,  nor  were  they  ascetic  like 
the  Brahmans.  They  were  married,  and  were  allowed 
to  drink  wine  and  to  eat  meat,  but  not  fish  nor 
beans,  which  disturbed  digestion.  The  son  of  a  priest 
was  generally  a  priest  also.  There  were  grades  of  rank 
among  the  priesthood;  but  not  more  so  than  in  the 
Eoman  Catholic  Church.  The  high-priest  was  a  great 
dignitary,  and  generally  belonged  to  the  royal  family. 
The  king  himself  was  a  priest. 

The  Egyptian  ritual  of  worship  was  the  most  com- 
plicated of  all  rituals,  and  their  literature  and  phi- 
losophy were  only  branches  of  theology.  "  Eeligious 
observances,"  says  Freeman  Clarke,  "  were  so  numerous 
and  so  imperative  that  the  most  common  labors  of  daily 
life  could  not  be  performed  without  a  perpetual  ref- 
erence to  some  priestly  regulation."  There  were  more 
religious  festivals  than  among  any  other  ancient  na- 
tion. The  land  was  covered  with  temples ;  and  every 
temple  consecrated  to  a  single  divinity,  to  whom  some 
animal  was  sacred,  supported  a  large  body  of  priests. 
The  authorities  on  Egyptian  history,  especially  Wil- 
kinson, speak  highly,  on  the  whole,  of  the  morals  of 
the  priesthood,  and  of  their  arduous  and  gloomy  life 
of    superintending    ceremonies,   sacrifices,    processions, 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      39 

and  funerals.  Their  life  was  so  full  of  minute 
duties  and  restrictions  that  they  rarely  appeared  in 
public,  and  their  aspect  as  well  as  influence  was 
austere  and  sacerdotal. 

One  of  the  most  distinctive  features  of  the  Egyptian 
religion  was  the  idea  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  — 
that  when  men  die,  their  souls  reappear  on  earth  in 
various  animals,  in  expiation  of  their  sins.  Osiris  was 
the  god  before  whose  tribunal  all  departed  spirits  ap- 
peared to  be  judged.  If  evil  preponderated  in  their 
lives,  their  souls  passed  into  a  long  series  of  animals 
until  their  sins  were  expiated,  when  the  purified  souls, 
after  thousands  of  years  perhaps,  passed  into  their  old 
bodies.  Hence  it  was  the  great  object  of  the  Egyp- 
tians to  preserve  their  mortal  bodies  after  death,  and 
thus  arose  the  custom  of  embalming  them.  It  is 
difficult  to  compute  the  number  of  mummies  that 
have  been  found  in  Egypt.  If  a  man  was  wealthy,  it 
cost  his  family  as  much  as  one  thousand  dollars  to 
embalm  his  body  suitably  to  his  rank.  The  embalmed 
bodies  of  kings  were  preserved  in  marble  sarcophagi, 
and  hidden  in  gigantic  monuments. 

The  most  repulsive  thing  in  the  Egyptian  religion 
was  animal-worship.  To  each  deity  some  animal  was 
sacred.  Thus  Apis,  the  sacred  bull  of  Memphis,  was 
the  representative  of  Osiris;  the  cow  was  sacred  to 
Isis,  and  to  Athor  her  mother.    Sheep  were  sacred 


40  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

to  Kneph,  as  well  as  the  asp.  Hawks  were  sacred  to 
Ea ;  lions  were  emblems  of  Horus,  wolves  of  Anubis, 
hippopotami  of  Set.  Each  town  was  jealous  of  the 
honor  of  its  special  favorites  among  the  gods. 

"  The  worst  form  of  this  animal  worship,"  says 
Rawlinson,  "  was  the  belief  that  a  deity  absolutely 
became  incarnate  in  an  individual  animal,  and  so  re- 
mained until  the  animal's  death.  Such  were  the  Apis 
bulls,  of  which  a  succession  was  maintained  at  Memphis 
in  the  temple  of  Phtha,  or,  according  to  others,  of 
Osiris.  These  beasts,  maintained  at  the  cost  of  the 
priestly  communities  in  the  great  temples  of  their  re- 
spective cities,  were  perpetually  adored  and  prayed  to 
by  thousands  during  their  lives,  and  at  their  deaths 
were  entombed  with  the  utmost  care  in  huge  sarco- 
phagi, while  all  Egypt  went  into  mourning  on  their 
decease." 

Such  was  the  religion  of  Egypt  as  known  to  the 
Jews,  —  a  complicated  polytheism,  embracing  the  wor- 
ship of  animals  as  well  as  the  powers  of  Nature ;  the 
belief  in  the  transmigration  of  souls,  and  a  sacerdotal- 
ism which  carried  ritualistic  ceremonies  to  the  greatest 
extent  known  to  antiquity,  combined  with  the  exal- 
tation of  the  priesthood  to  such  a  degree  as  to  make 
priests  the  real  rulers  of  the  land,  reminding  us  of  the 
spiritual  despotism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  priests 
of  Egypt  ruled  by  appealing   to  the   fears  of   men, 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      41 

thus  favoring  a  degrading  superstition.  How  far  they 
taught  that  the  various  objects  of  worship  were  sym- 
bols merely  of  a  supreme  power,  which  they  them- 
selves perhaps  accepted  in  their  esoteric  schools,  we 
do  not  know.  But  the  priests  believed  in  a  future 
state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  and  thus  recognized 
the  soul  to  be  of  more  importance  than  the  material 
body,  and  made  its  welfare  paramount  over  all  other 
interests.  This  recognition  doubtless  contributed  to 
elevate  the  morals  of  the  people,  and  to  make  them 
religious,  despite  their  false  and  degraded  views  of 
God,  and  their  disgusting  superstitions. 

The  Jews  could  not  have  lived  in  Egypt  four  hun- 
dred years  without  being  influenced  by  the  popular 
belief.  Hence  in  the  wilderness,  and  in  the  days  of 
kingly  rule,  the  tendency  to  animal  worship  in  the 
shape  of  the  golden  calves,  their  love  of  ritualistic 
observances,  and  their  easy  submission  to  the  rule  of 
priests.  In  one  very  important  thing,  however,  the 
Jews  escaped  a  degrading  superstition,  —  that  of  the 
transmigration  of  souls;  and  it  was  perhaps  the  ab- 
horrence by  Moses  of  this  belief  that  made  him  so  re- 
markably silent  as  to  a  future  state.  It  is  seemingly 
ignored  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  hence  many  have 
been  led  to  suppose  that  the  Jews  did  not  believe  ia  it. 
Certainly  the  most  cultivated  and  aristocratic  sect  — 
the  Sadducees  —  repudiated  it  altogether ;  while  the 


42  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

Pharisees  held  to  it  They,  however,  were  products 
of  a  later  age,  and  had  learned  many  things  —  good 
and  bad  —  from  surrounding  nations  or  in  their  cap- 
tivities, which  Moses  did  not  attempt  to  teach  the 
simple  souls  that  escaped  from  Egypt. 

Of  the  other  religions  with  which  the  Jews  came 
in  contact,  and  which  more  or  less  were  in  conflict 
with  their  own  monotheistic  belief,  very  little  is  defi- 
nitely known,  since  their  sacred  books,  if  they  had 
any,  have  not  come  down  to  us.  Our  knowledge  is 
mostly  confined  to  monuments,  on  which  the  names 
of  their  deities  are  inscribed,  the  animals  which  they 
worshipped,  symbolic  of  the  powers  of  Nature,  and 
the  kings  and  priests  who  officiated  in  religious  cere- 
monies. From  these  we  learn  or  infer  that  among 
the  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  and  Phoenicians  religion 
was  polytheistic,  but  without  so  complicated  or  highly 
organized  a  system  as  prevailed  in  Egypt.  Only  about 
twenty  deities  are  alluded  to  in  the  monumental  rec- 
ords of  either  nation,  and  they  are  supposed  to  have 
represented  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  and  va- 
rious other  powers,  to  which  were  delegated  by  the 
unseen  and  occult  supreme  deity  the  oversight  of  this 
world.  They  presided  over  cities  and  the  elements 
of  Nature,  like  the  rain,  the  thunder,  the  winds,  the 
air,  the  water.     Some  abode  in  heaven,  some  on  the 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,   AND  PERSIAN.     43 

earth,  and  some  in  the  waters  under  the  earth.  Of 
all  these  graven  images  existed,  carved  by  men's 
hands,  —  some  in  the  form  of  animals,  like  the  winged 
bulls  of  Nineveh.  In  the  very  earliest  times,  before 
history  was  written,  it  is  supposed  that  the  religion 
of  all  these  nations  was  monotheistic,  and  that  poly- 
theism was  a  development  as  men  became  wicked  and 
sensual.  The  knowledge  of  the  one  God  was  gradually 
lost,  although  an  indefinite  belief  remained  that  there 
was  a  supreme  power  over  all  the  other  gods,  at  least 
a  deity  of  higher  rank  than  the  gods  of  the  people, 
who  reigned  over  them  as  Lord  of  lords. 

This  deity  in  Assyria  was  Asshur.  He  is  recog- 
nized by  most  authorities  as  Asshur,  a  son  of  Shem 
and  grandson  of  Noah,  who  was  probably  the  hero 
and  leader  of  one  of  the  early  migrations,  and,  as 
founder  of  the  Assyrian  Empire,  gave  it  its  name, — 
his  own  being  magnified  and  deified  by  his  warlike 
descendants.  Assyria  was  the  oldest  of  the  great  em- 
pires, occupying  Mesopotamia,  —  the  vast  plain  watered 
by  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  rivers,  —  with  adjacent 
countries  to  the  north,  west,  and  east.  Its  seat  was 
in  the  northern  portion  of  this  region,  while  that  of 
Babylonia  or  Chaldaea,  its  rival,  was  in  the  southern 
part ;  and  although  after  many  wars  freed  from  the 
subjection  of  Assyria,  the  institutions  of  Babylonia, 
and  especially  its  religion,  were  very  much  the  same 


44  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

as  those  of  the  elder  empire.  In  Babylonia  the  chief 
god  was  called  El,  or  U.  In  Babylon,  although  Bab-el, 
their  tutelary  god,  was  at  the  head  of  the  pantheon, 
his  form  was  not  represented,  nor  had  he  any  special 
temple  for  his  worship.  The  Assyrian  Asshur  placed 
kings  upon  their  thrones,  protected  their  armies,  and 
directed  their  expeditions.  In  speaking  of  him  it  was 
"  Asshur,  my  Lord."  He  was  also  called  "  King  of 
kings,"  reigning  supreme  over  the  gods ;  and  some- 
times he  was  called  the  "  Father  of  the  gods."  His 
position  in  the  celestial  hierarchy  corresponds  with 
the  Zeus  of  the  Greeks,  and  with  the  Jupiter  of  the 
Romans.  He  was  represented  as  a  man  with  a  horned 
cap,  carrying  a  bow  and  issuing  from  a  winged  circle, 
which  circle  was  the  emblem  of  ubiquity  and  eternity. 
This  emblem  was  also  the  accompaniment  of  Assyrian 
royalty. 

These  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  deities  had  a  di- 
rect influence  on  the  Jews  in  later  centuries,  because 
traders  on  the  Tigris  pushed  their  adventurous  expe- 
ditions from  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  either  around 
the  great  peninsula  of  Arabia,  or  by  land  across  the  des- 
erts, and  settled  in  Canaan,  calling  themselves  Phoe- 
nicians ;  and  it  was  from  the  descendants  of  these 
enterprising  but  morally  debased  people  that  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel,  returning  from  Egypt,  received  the  most 
pertinacious   influences   of   idolatrous   corruption.     In 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      45 

Phoenicia  the  chief  deity  was  also  called  Bel,  or  Baal, 
meaning  "  Lord,"  the  epithet  of  the  one  divine  being 
who  rules  the  world,  or  the  Lord  of  heaven.  The 
deity  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon,  with  whom  Baal  most 
nearly  corresponds,  was  Ammon,  addressed  as  the  su- 
preme God. 

Eanking  after  El  in  Babylon,  Asshur  in  Assyria, 
and  Baal  in  Phoenicia,  —  all  shadows  of  the  same  su- 
preme God,  —  we  notice  among  these  Mesopotamians 
a  triad  of  the  great  gods,  called  Anu,  Bel,  and  Hea. 
Anu,  the  primordial  chaos;  Hea,  life  and  intelligence 
animating  matter ;  and  Bel,  the  organizing  and  creative 
spirit,  —  or,  as  Eawlinson  thinks,  "  the  original  gods 
of  the  earth,  the  heavens,  and  the  waters,  correspond- 
ing in  the  main  with  the  classical  Pluto,  Jupiter,  and 
Neptune,  who  divided  between  them  the  dominion  over 
the  visible  creation."  The  god  Bel,  in  the  pantheon  of 
the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  is  the  God  of  gods, 
and  Father  of  gods,  who  made  the  earth  and  heaven. 
His  title  expresses  dominion. 

In  succession  to  the  gods  of  this  first  trio,  —  Anu, 
Bel,  and  Hea,  —  was  another  trio,  named  Siu,  Shamas, 
and  Vul,  representing  the  moon,  the  sun,  and  the  at- 
mosphere. "  In  Assyria  and  Babylon  the  moon-god 
took  precedence  of  the  sun-god,  since  night  was  more 
agreeable  to  the  inhabitants  of  those  hot  countries 
than   the  day."     Hence,   Siu  was   the  more  popular 


46  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

deity ;  but  Shamas,  the  sun,  as  having  most  direct 
reference  to  physical  nature,  "  the  lord  of  fire,"  "  the 
ruler  of  the  day,"  was  the  god  of  battles,  going  forth 
with  the  armies  of  the  king  triumphant  over  enemies. 
The  worship  of  this  deity  was  universal,  and  the  kings 
regarded  him  as  affording  them  especial  help  in  war. 
Vul,  the  third  of  this  trinity,  was  the  god  of  the  at- 
mosphere, the  god  of  tempests,  —  the  god  who  caused 
the  liood  which  the  Assyrian  legends  recognize.  He  cor- 
responds with  the  Jupiter  Tonans  of  the  Romans, — 
"  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,"  destroyer  of 
crops,  the  scatterer  of  the  harvest,  represented  with  a 
flaming  sword ;  but  as  god  of  the  atmosphere,  the 
giver  of  rain,  of  abundance,  "the  lord  of  fecundity," 
he  was  beneficent  as  well  as  destructive. 

All  these  gods  had  wives  resembling  the  goddesses 
in  the  Greek  mythology, — some  beneficent,  some  cruel ; 
rendering  aid  to  men,  or  pursuing  them  with  their  an- 
ger. And  here  one  cannot  resist  the  impression  that 
the  earliest  forms  of  the  Greek  mythology  were  de- 
rived from  the  Babylonians  and  Phoenicians,  and  that 
the  Greek  poets,  availing  themselves  of  the  legends  re- 
specting them,  created  the  popular  religion  of  Greece. 
It  is  a  mooted  question  whether  the  Greek  civiliza- 
tion is  chiefly  derived  from  Egypt,  or  from  Assyria 
and  Phoenicia, — probably  more  from  these  old  mon- 
archies combined  than  from  the  original  seat  of  the 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN,      47 

Aryan  race  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  All  these  an- 
cient monarchies  had  run  out  and  were  old  when  the 
Greeks  began  their  settlements  and  conquests. 

There  was  still  another  and  inferior  class  of  deities 
among  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  who  were  ob- 
jects of  worship,  and  were  supposed  to  have  great 
influence  on  human  affairs.  These  deities  were  the 
planets  under  different  names.  The  early  study  of 
astronomy  among  the  dwellers  on  the  plains  of  Babylon 
and  in  Mesopotamia  gave  an  astral  feature  to  their 
religion  which  was  not  prominent  in  Egypt.  These 
astral  deities  were  Nin,  or  Bar  (the  Saturn  of  the 
Eomans);  and  Merodach  (Jupiter),  the  august  god, 
"  the  eldest  son  of  Heaven,"  the  Lord  of  battles.  This 
was  the  favorite  god  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  epithets 
of  the  highest  honor  were  conferred  upon  him,  as 
"  King  of  heaven  and  earth,"  the  "  Lord  of  all  beings," 
etc.  Nergal  (Mars)  was  a  war  god,  his  name  signi- 
fying "  the  great  Hero,"  "  the  King  of  battles."  He 
goes  before  kings  in  their  military  expeditions,  and 
lends  them  assistance  in  the  chase.  His  emblem  is 
the  human-headed  winged  lion  seen  at  the  entrance 
of  royal  palaces.  Ista  (Venus)  was  the  goddess  of 
beauty,  presiding  over  the  loves  of  both  men  and  ani- 
mals, and  was  worshipped  with  unchaste  rites.  Nebo 
(Mercury)  had  the  charge  over  learning  and  culture,  — 
the  god  of  wisdom,  who  "  teaches  and  instructs." 


48  ANCIENT  RELIGION  St 

There  were  other  deities  in  the  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian pantheon  whom  I  need  not  name,  since  they 
played  a  comparatively  unimportant  part  in  human 
affairs,  like  the  inferior  deities  of  the  Romans,  pre- 
siding over  dreams,  over  feasts,  over  marriage,  and 
the  like. 

The  Phoenicians,  like  the  Assyrians,  had  their  god- 
desses. Astoreth,  or  Astarte,  represented  the  great 
female  productive  principle,  as  Baal  did  the  male. 
It  was  originally  a  name  for  the  energy  of  God,  on 
a  par  with  Baal.  In  one  of  her  aspects  she  repre- 
sented the  moon ;  but  more  commonly  she  was  the 
representative  of  the  female  principle  in  Nature,  and 
was  connected  more  or  less  with  voluptuous  rites, — 
the  equivalent  of  Aphrodite,  or  Venus.  Tanith  also 
was  a  noted  female  deity,  and  was  worshipped  at 
Carthage  and  Cyprus  by  the  Phoenician  settlers.  The 
name  is  associated,  according  to  Gesenius,  with  the 
Egyptian  goddess  Nut,  and  with  the  Grecian  Artemis 
the  huntress. 

An  important  thing  to  be  observed  of  these  various 
deities  is  that  they  do  not  uniformly  represent  the 
same  power.  Thus  Baal,  the  Phoenician  sun-god,  was 
made  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans  equivalent  to  Zeus, 
or  Jupiter,  the  god  of  thunder  and  storms.  Apollo, 
the  sun-god  of  the  Greeks,  was  not  so  powerful  as 
Zeus,  the  god  of  the  atmosphere ;   wliile  in  Assyria 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.       49 

and  Phoenicia  the  sun-god  was  the  greater  deity.  In 
Babylonia,  Shamas  was  a  sun-god  as  well  as  Bel ;  and 
Bel  again  was  the  god  of  the  heavens,  like  Zeus. 

While  Zeus  was  the  supreme  deity  in  the  Greek 
mythology,  rather  than  Apollo  the  sun,  it  seems  that 
on  the  whole  the  sun  was  the  prominent  and  the  most 
commonly  worshipped  deity  of  all  the  Oriental  nations, 
as  being  the  most  powerful  force  in  Nature.  Behind 
the  sun,  however,  there  was  supposed  to  be  an  indefinite 
creative  power,  whose  form  was  iiot  represented,  wor- 
shipped in  no  particular  temple  by  the  esoteric  few 
who  were  his  votaries,  and  called  the  "  Father  of  all 
the  gods,"  "  the  Ancient  of  days,"  reigning  supreme 
over  them  all.  This  indefinite  conception  of  the  Je- 
hovah of  the  Hebrews  seems  to  me  the  last  flickering 
light  of  the  primitive  revelation,  shining  in  the  souls 
of  the  most  enlightened  of  the  Pagan  worshippers, 
including  perhaps  the  greatest  of  the  monarchs,  who 
were  priests  as  well  as  kings. 

The  most  distinguishing  feature  in  the  worship  of 
all  the  gods  of  antiquity,  whether  among  Egyptians, 
or  Assyrians,  or  Babylonians,  or  Phoenicians,  or  Greeks, 
or  Romans,  is  that  of  oblations  and  sacrifices.  It  was 
even  a  peculiarity  of  the  old  Jewish  religion,  as  well 
as  that  of  China  and  India.  These  oblations  and  sac- 
rifices were  sometimes  offered  to  the  deity,  whatever 
his  form  or  name,  as  an  expiation  for  sin,  of  which 


50  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

the  soul  is  conscious  in  all  ages  and  countries ;  some- 
times to  obtain  divine  favor,  as  in  military  expeditions, 
or  to  secure  any  object  dearest  to  the  heart,  such  as 
health,  prosperity,  or  peace ;  sometimes  to  propitiate 
the  deity  in  order  to  avert  the  calamities  following 
his  supposed  wrath  or  vengeance.  The  oblations  were 
usually  in  the  form  of  wine,  honey,  or  the  fruits  of 
the  earth,  which  were  supposed  to  be  necessary  for  the 
nourishment  of  the  gods,  especially  in  Greece.  The 
sacrifices  were  generally  of  oxen,  sheep,  and  goats, 
the  most  valued  and  precious  of  human  property  in 
primitive  times,  for  those  old  heathen  never  offered  to 
their  deities  that  which  cost  them  nothing,  but  rather 
that  which  was  dearest  to  them.  Sometimes,  especially 
in  Phoenicia,  human  beings  were  offered  in  sacrifice,  the 
most  repulsive  peculiarity  of  polytheism.  But  the  in- 
stincts of  humanity  generally  kept  men  from  rites  so 
revolting.  Christianity,  as  one  of  its  distinguishing 
features,  abolished  all  forms  of  outward  sacrifice,  as  su- 
perstitious and  useless.  The  sacrifices  pleasing  to  God 
are  a  broken  spirit,  as  revealed  to  David  and  Isaiah 
amid  all  the  ceremonies  and  ritualism  of  Jewish  wor- 
ship, and  still  more  to  Paul  and  Peter  when  the  new 
dispensation  was  fully  declared.  The  only  sacrifice 
which  Christ  enjoined  was  self-sacrifice,  supreme  de- 
votion to  a  spiritual  and  unseen  'and  supreme  God,  and 
to  his  children  :  as  the  Christ  took  upon  himself  the 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      51 

form  of  a  man,  suffering  evil  all  his  days,  and  finally 
even  an  ignominious  death,  in  obedience  to  his  Father's 
will,  that  the  world  might  be  saved  by  his  own  self- 
sacrifice. 

With  sacrifices  as  an  essential  feature  of  all  the 
ancient  religions,  if  we  except  that  of  Persia  in  the 
time  of  Zoroaster,  there  was  need  of  an  officiating 
priesthood.  The  priests  in  all  countries  sought  to  gain 
power  and  influence,  and  made  themselves  an  exclusive 
caste,  more  or  less  powerful  as  circumstances  favored 
their  usurpations.  The  priestly  caste  became  a  ter- 
rible power  in  Egypt  and  India,  where  the  people,  it 
would  seem,  were  most  susceptible  to  religious  im- 
pressions, were  most  docUe  and  most  ignorant,  and 
had  in  constant  view  the  future  welfare  of  their  souls. 
In  China,  where  there  was  scarcely  any  religion  at  all, 
this  priestly  power  was  unknown ;  and  it  was  especially 
weak  among  the  Greeks,  who  had  no  fear  of  the  future, 
and  who  worshipped  beauty  and  grace  rather  than  a 
spiritual  god.  Sacerdotalism  entered  into  Christianity 
when  it  became  corrupted  by  the  lust  of  dominion 
and  power,  and  with  great  force  ruled  the  Christian 
world  in  times  of  ignorance  and  superstition.  It  is 
sad  to  think  that  the  decline  of  sacerdotalism  is  as- 
sociated with  the  growth  of  infidelity  and  religious 
indifference,  showing  how  few  worship  God  in  spirit 
and  in  truth  even  in  Christian  countries.     Yet  even 


52  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

that  reaction  is  humanly  natural ;  and  as  it  so  surely 
follows  upon  epochs  of  priestcraft,  it  may  be  a  part 
of  the  divine  process  of  arousing  men  to  the  evils  of 
superstition. 

Among  all  nations  where  polytheism  prevailed,  idol- 
atry became  a  natural  sequence, — that  is,  the  worship 
of  animals  and  of  graven  images,  at  first  as  symbols  of 
the  deities  that  were  worshipped,  generally  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  and  the  elements  of  Nature,  like  fire, 
water,  and  air.  But  the  symbols  of  divine  power,  as 
degeneracy  increased  and  ignorance  set  in,  were  in 
succession  worshipped  as  deities,  as  in  India  and  Africa 
at  the  present  day.  This  is  the  lowest  form  of  religion, 
and  the  most  repulsive  and  degraded  which  has  pre- 
vailed in  the  world,  —  showing  the  enormous  difiference 
between  the  primitive  faiths  and  the  worship  which 
sacceeded,  growing  more  and  more  hideous  with  the 
progress  of  ages,  until  the  fulness  of  time  arrived 
when  God  sent  reformers  among  the  debased  people, 
more  or  less  supematurally  inspired,  to  declare  new 
truth,  and  even  to  revive  the  knowledge  of  the  old 
in  danger  of  being  utterly  lost 

It  is  a  pleasant  thing  to  remember  that  the  religions 
thus  far  treated,  as  known  to  the  Jews,  and  by  which 
they  were  more  or  less  contaminated,  have  all  passed 
away  with  the  fall  of  empires  and  the  spread  of  di- 
vine truth;  and  they  never  again  can  be  revived  in 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      58 

the  countries  where  they  flourished.  Mohammedan- 
ism, a  monotheistic  religion,  has  taken  their  place,  and 
driven  the  ancient  idols  to  the  moles  and  the  bats; 
and  where  Mohammedanism  has  failed  to  extirpate 
ancient  idolatries,  Christianity  in  some  form  has  come 
in  and  dethroned  them  forever. 

There  was  one  form  of  religion  with  which  the 
Jews  came  in  contact  which  was  comparatively  pure ; 
and  this  was  the  religion  of  Persia,  the  loftiest  form 
of  all  Pagan  beliefs. 

The  Persians  were  an  important  branch  of  the  Ira- 
nian family.  "  The  Iranians  were  the  dominant  race 
throughout  the  entire  tract  lying  between  the  SuK- 
man  mountains  and  the  Pamir  steppe  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  great  Mesopotamian  valley  on  the  other." 
It  was  a  region  of  great  extremes  of  temperature, — the 
summers  being  hot,  and  the  winters  piercingly  cold. 
A  great  part  of  this  region  is  an  arid  and  frightful 
desert ;  but  the  more  favored  portions  are  extremely 
fertile.  In  this  country  the  Iranians  settled  at  a  very 
early  period,  probably  2500  b.  c,  about  the  time  the 
Hindus  emigrated  from  Central  Asia  to  the  banks  of 
the  Indus.  Both  Iranians  and  Hindus  belonged  to  the 
great  Aryan  or  Indo-European  race,  whose  original 
settlements  were  on  the  high  table-lands  northeast 
of  Samarkand,  in   the  modern   Bokhara,  watered  by 


64  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

the  Oxus,  or  Amon  River.  From  these  rugged  re- 
gions east  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  where  the  means  of 
subsistence  are  difficult  to  be  obtained,  the  Aryans 
emigrated  to  India  on  the  southeast,  to  Iran  on  the 
southwest,  to  Europe  on  the  west,  —  all  speaking  sub- 
stantially the  same  language. 

Of  those  who  settled  in  Iran,  the  Persians  were  the 
most  prominent,  —  a  brave,  hardy,  and  adventurous 
people,  warlike  in  their  habits,  and  moral  in  their 
conduct.  They  were  a  pastoral  rather  than  a  nomadic 
people,  and  gloried  in  their  horses  and  cattle.  They 
had  great  skill  as  archers  and  horsemen,  and  furnished 
the  best  cavalry  among  the  ancients.  They  lived  in 
fixed  habitations,  and  their  houses  had  windows  and 
fireplaces;  but  they  were  doomed  to  a  perpetual 
struggle  with  a  severe  and  uncertain  climate,  and  a 
soil  which  required  ceaseless  diligence.  "  The  whole 
plateau  of  Iran,"  says  Johnson,  "was  suggestive  of 
the  war  of  elements,  —  a  country  of  great  contrasts 
of  fertility  and  desolation,  —  snowy  ranges  of  moun- 
tains, salt  deserts,  and  fields  of  beauty  lying  in  close 
proximity." 

The  early  Persians  are  represented  as  having  oval 
faces,  raised  features,  well-arched  eyebrows,  and  lai^e 
dark  eyes,  now  soft  as  the  gazelle's,  now  flashing  with 
quick  insight.  Such  a  people  were  extremely  recep- 
tive of  modes  and  fashions,  —  the  aptest  learners  as 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.        55 

well  as  the  boldest  adventurers ;  not  patient  in  study 
nor  skilful  to  invent,  but  swift  to  seize  and  appropri- 
ate, terrible  breakers-up  of  old  religious  spells.  They 
dissolved  the  old  material  civilization  of  Cushite  and 
Turanian  origin.  What  passion  for  vast  conquests  I 
"  These  rugged  tribes,  devoted  to  their  chiefs,  led  by 
Cyrus  from  their  herds  and  hunting-grounds  to  startle 
the  pampered  Lydians  with  their  spare  diet  and  cloth- 
ing of  skins ;  living  on  what  they  could  get,  strangers 
to  wine  and  wassail,  schooled  in  manly  exercises, 
cleanly  even  to  superstition,  loyal  to  age  and  filial 
duties;  with  a  manly  pride  of  personal  independence 
that  held  a  debt  the  next  worst  thing  to  a  lie ;  their 
fondness  for  social  graces,  their  feudal  dignities,  their 
chiefs  giving  counsel  to  the  king  even  while  submis- 
sive to  his  person,  esteeming  prowess  before  praying; 
their  strong  ambition,  scorning  those  who  scorned 
toil."  Artaxerxes  wore  upon  his  person  the  worth  of 
twelve  thousand  talents,  yet  shared  the  hardships  of 
his  army  in  the  march,  carrying  quiver  and  shield, 
leading  the  way  to  the  steepest  places,  and  stimulating 
the  hearts  of  his  soldiers  by  walking  twenty-five  miles 
a  day. 

There  was  much  that  is  interesting  about  the  an- 
cient Persians.  All  the  old  authorities,  especially  He- 
rodotus, testify  to  the  comparative  purity  of  their  lives, 
to  their  love  o£  truth,  to  their  heroism  in  war,  to  the 


66  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

simplicity  of  their  habits,  to  their  industry  and  thrift 
in  battling  sterility  of  soil  and  the  elements  of  Nature, 
to  their  love  of  agricultural  pursuits,  to  kindness 
towards  women  and  slaves,  and  above  all  other  tilings 
to  a  strong  personality  of  character  which  implied  a 
powerful  wilL  The  early  Persians  chose  the  bravest 
and  most  capable  of  their  nobles  for  kings,  and  these 
kings  were  mild  and  merciful.  Xenophon  makes  Cyrus 
the  ideal  of  a  king,  —  the  incarnation  of  sweetness  and 
light,  conducting  war  with  a  magnanimity  unknown 
to  the  ancient  nations,  dismissing  prisoners,  forgiving 
foes,  freeing  slaves,  and  winning  all  hearts  by  a  true 
nobility  of  nature.  He  was  a  reformer  of  barbarous 
methods  of  war,  and  as  pure  in  morals  as  he  was 
powerful  in  war.  In  short,  he  had  all  those  qualities 
which  we  admire  in  the  chivalric  heroes  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 

There  was  developed  among  this  primitive  and  vir- 
tuous people  a  religion  essentially  different  from  that 
of  Assyria  and  Egypt,  with  which  is  associated  the 
name  of  Zoroaster,  or  Zarathushtra.  Who  this  extra- 
ordinary personage  was,  and  when  he  lived,  it  is  not 
easy  to  determine.  Some  suppose  that  he  did  not 
live  at  alL  It  is  most  probable  that  he  lived  in  Bac- 
tria  from  1000  to  1500  b.  c.  ;  but  all  about  him  is 
involved  in  hopeless  obscurity. 

The  Zend-Avesta,  or  the  sacred  books  of  the  Per- 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      57 

sians,  are  mostly  hymns,  prayers,  and  invocations  ad- 
dressed to  various  deities,  among  whom  Ormazd  was 
regarded  as  supreme.  These  poems  were  first  made 
known  to  European  scholars  by  AnquetH  du  Perron, 
an  enthusiastic  traveller,  a  little  more  than  one  hun- 
dred years  ago,  and  before  the  laws  of  Menu  were 
translated  by  Sir  William  Jones.  What  we  know 
about  the  religion  of  Persia  is  chiefly  derived  from 
the  Zend-Avesta.  Zend  is  the  interpretation  of  the 
Avesta.  The  oldest  part  of  these  poems  is  called  the 
GS,thas,  supposed  to  have  been  composed  by  Zoroaster 
about  the  time  of  Moses. 

As  all  information  about  Zoroaster  personally  is 
unsatisfactory,  I  proceed  to  speak  of  the  religion 
which  he  is  supposed  to  have  given  to  the  Iranians, 
according  to  Dr.  Martin  Haug,  the  great  authority 
on  this  subject. 

Its  peculiar  feature  was  dualism,  —  two  original 
uncreated  principles  ;  one  good,  the  other  evil.  Both 
principles  were  real  persons,  possessed  of  will,  intel- 
ligence, power,  consciousness,  engaged  from  all  eter- 
nity in  perpetual  contest.  The  good  power  was  called 
Ahura-Mazda,  and  the  evil  power  was  called  Angro- 
Mainyus.  Ahura-Mazda  means  the  "  Much-knowing 
spirit,"  or  the  All-wise,  the  All-bountiful,  who  stood  at 
the  head  of  all  that  is  beneficent  in  the  universe, — 
**  the  creator  of  life,"  who  made  the  celestial  bodies 


68  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

and  the  earth,  and  from  whom  came  all  good  to  man 
and  everlasting  happiness.  Angro-Mainyus  means  the 
black  or  dark  intelligence,  the  creator  of  all  that  is 
evil,  both  moral  and  physical.  He  had  power  to  blast 
the  earth  with  barrenness,  to  produce  earthquakes  and 
storms,  to  inflict  disease  and  death,  destroy  flocks  and 
the  fruits  of  the  earth,  excite  wars  and  tumults ;  in 
short,  to  send  every  form  of  evil  on  mankind.  Ahura- 
Mazda  had  no  control  over  this  Power  of  evil;  all 
he  could  do  was  to  baffle  him. 

Thjse  two  deities  who  divided  the  universe  between 
them  had  each  subordinate  spirits  or  genii,  who  did 
their  will,  and  assisted  in  the  government  of  the 
universe,  —  corresponding  to  our  idea  of  angels  and 
demons. 

Neither  of  these  supreme  deities  was  represented 
by  the  early  Iranians  under  material  forms  ;  but  in 
process  of  time  corruption  set  in,  and  Magism,  or  the 
worship  of  the  elements  of  Nature,  became  generaL 
The  elements  which  were  worsliipped  were  fire,  air, 
earth,  and  water.  Personal  gods,  temples,  shrines,  and 
images  were  rejected.  But  the  most  common  form  of 
worship  was  that  of  fire,  in  Mithra,  the  genius  of 
light,  early  identified  with  the  sun.  Hence,  practi- 
cally, the  supreme  god  of  the  Persians  was  the  same 
that  was  worshipped  in  Assyria  and  Egypt  and  India, 
—  the  sun,  under  various  names  ;  with  this  difference, 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      59 

that  in  Persia  there  were  no  temples  erected  to  him, 
nor  were  there  graven  images  of  him.  With  the  sun 
was  associated  a  supreme  power  that  presided  over 
the  universe,  benignant  and  eternal.  Fire  itself  in  its 
pure  universality  was  more  to  the  Iranians  than  any 
form.  "  From  the  sun,"  says  the  Avesta,  "  are  all 
things  sought  that  can  be  desired."  To  fire,  the  Per- 
sian kings  addressed  their  prayers.  Fire,  or  the  sun, 
was  in  the  early  times  a  symbol  of  the  supreme  Power, 
rather  than  the  Power  itself,  since  the  sun  was  created 
by  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormazd).  It  was  to  him  that  Zoro- 
aster addressed  his  prayers,  as  recorded  in  the  GathS,s. 
"  I  worship,"  said  he,  "  the  Creator  of  all  things,  Ahura- 
Mazda,  full  of  light.  .  .  .  Teach  thou  me,  Ahura-Mazda, 
out  of  thyself,  from  heaven  by  thy  mouth,  whereby 
the  world  first  arose."  Again,  from  the  Khorda- Avesta 
we  read :  "  In  the  name  of  God,  the  giver,  forgiver, 
rich  in  love,  praise  be  to  the  name  of  Ormazd,  who 
always  was,  always  is,  and  always  will  be ;  from  whom 
alone  is  derived  rule."  From  these  and  other  passages 
we  infer  that  the  religion  of  the  Iranians  was  mono- 
theistic. And  yet  the  sun  also  was  worshipped  under 
the  name  of  Mithra.  Says  Zoroaster :  "  I  invoke 
Mithra,  the  lofty,  the  immortal,  the  pure,  the  sun,  the 
ruler,  the  eye  of  Ormazd."  It  would  seem  from  this 
that  the  sun  was  identified  with  the  Supreme  Being. 
There  was  no  other  power  than  the  sun  which  was 

VOL.  I.— 8 


60  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

worshipped.  There  was  no  multitude  of  gods,  noth- 
ing like  polytheism,  such  as  existed  in  Egypt.  The 
Iranians  believed  in  one  supreme,  eternal  God,  who 
created  all  things,  beneficent  and  all- wise;  yet  this 
supreme  power  was  worshipped  under  the  symbol  of 
the  sun,  although  the  sun  was  created  by  him.  This 
confounding  the  sun  with  a  supreme  and  intelligent 
being  makes  the  Iranian  religion  indefinite,  and  hard 
to  be  comprehended ;  but  compared  with  the  poly- 
theism of  Egypt  and  Babylon,  it  is  much  higher  and 
purer.  We  see  in  it  no  degrading  rites,  no  ofifensive 
sacerdotalism,  no  caste,  no  worship  of  animals  or 
images;  all  is  spiritual  and  elevated,  but  little  in- 
ferior to  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews.  In  the  Zend- 
Avesta  we  find  no  doctrines;  but  we  do  find  prayers 
and  praises  and  supplication  to  a  Supreme  Being.  In 
the  Vedas  —  the  Hindu  books  —  the  powers  of  Nature 
are  gods ;  in  the  Avesta  they  are  spirits,  or  servants 
of  the  Supreme. 

"  The  main  difiference  between  the  Vedic  and  Avestan, 
religions  is  that  in  the  latter  the  Vedic  worship  of  nat- 
ural powers  and  phenomena  is  superseded  by  a  more 
ethical  and  personal  interest  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormazd), 
the  living  wisdom,  replaces  Indra,  the  lightning-god. 
In  Iran  there  grew  up,  what  India  never  saw,  a  con- 
sciousness of  world-purpose,  ethical  and  spiritual;  a 
reference  of  the  ideal  to  the  future  rather  than  the 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      61 

present ;  a  promise  of  progress ;  and  the  idea  that  the 
law  of  the  universe  means  the  final  deliverance  of 
good  from  evil,  and  its  eternal  triumph."  ^ 

The  loftiness  which  modern  scholars  like  Haug,  Le- 
normant,  and  Spiegel  see  in  the  Zend-Avesta  pertains 
more  directly  to  the  earlier  portions  of  these  sacred 
writings,  attributable  to  Zoroaster,  called  the  GathS,s. 
But  in  the  course  of  time  the  Avesta  was  subjected 
to  many  additions  and  interpretations,  called  the  Zend, 
which  show  degeneracy.     A  world  of  myth  and  legend 
is  crowded  into  liturgical  fragments.     The  old  Bactriau 
tongue   in  which   the  Avesta  was   composed  became 
practically  a  dead  language.     There  entered  into  the 
Avesta  old  Chaldcean  traditions.     It  would  be  strange 
if  the  pure  faith  of  Zoroaster  should  not  be  corrupted 
after  Persia  had  conquered  Babylon,  and  even  after 
its  alliance  with  Media,  where  the  Magi  had  great 
reputation   for  knowledge.     And   yet  even   with   the 
corrupting  influence  of  the  superstitions  of  Babylon, 
to  say  nothing  of  Media,  the  Persian  conquerors  did 
not  wholly  forget  the  God  of  their  fathers  in  their 
old  Bactrian  home.     And  it  is  probable  that  one  rea- 
son why  Cyrus  and  Darius  treated  the  Jews  with  sc 
much  kindness  and  generosity  was  the  sympathy  they 
felt  for  the  monotheism  of  the  Jewish  religion  in  con- 
trast with  the  polytheism  and  idolatry  of  the  conquered 
^  Samuel  Johnson's  Eeligiou  of  Persia. 


62  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS: 

Babylonians.  It  is  not"  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
both  the  Persians  and  Jews  worshipped  substantially 
the  one  God  who  made  the  heaven  and  the  earth, 
notwithstanding  the  dualism  which  entered  into  the 
Persian  rehgion,  and  the  symbolic  worship  of  fire  which 
is  the  most  powerful  agent  in  Nature ;  and  it  is  con- 
sidered by  many  that  from  the  Persians  the  Jews 
received,  during  their  Captivity,  their  ideas  concerning 
a  personal  Devil,  or  Power  of  Evil,  of  which  no  hint 
appears  in  the  Law  or  the  earlier  Prophets.  It  would 
certainly  seem  to  be  due  to  that  monotheism  which 
modern  scholars  see  behind  the  dualism  of  Persia, 
as  an  elemental  principle  of  the  old  religion  of  Iran, 
that  the  Persians  were  the  noblest  people  of  Pagan 
antiquity,  and  practised  the  highest  morahty  known 
in  the  ancient  world.  Virtue  and  heroism  went  hand 
in  hand  ;  and  both  virtue  and  heroism  were  the  result 
of  their  religion.  But  when  the  Persians  became  in- 
toxicated with  the  wealth  and  power  they  acquired 
on  the  fall  of  Babylon,  then  their  degeneracy  was 
rapid,  and  their  faith  became  obscured.  Had  it  been 
the  will  of  Providence  that  the  Greeks  should  have 
contended  with  the  Persians  under  the  leadership  of 
Cyrus,  —  the  greatest  Oriental  conqueror  known  in  his- 
tory, —  rather  than  under  Xerxes,  then  even  an  Alex- 
ander might  have  been  baffled.  The  great  mistake  of 
the  Persian  monarchs  in  their  degeneracy  was  in  trust- 


EGYPTIAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  PERSIAN.      63 

ing  to  the  magnitude  of  their  armies  rather  than  in 
their  ancient  discipline  and  national  heroism.  The 
consequence  was  a  panic,  which  would  not  have  taken 
place  under  Cyrus,  whenever  they  met  the  Greeks  in 
battle.  It  was  a  panic  which  dispersed  the  Persian 
hosts  in  the  fatal  battle  of  Arbela,  and  made  Alex- 
ander the  master  of  western  Asia.  But  degenerate 
as  the  Persians  became,  they  rallied  under  succeed- 
ing dynasties,  and  in  Artaxerxes  11.  and  Chosroes 
the  Eomans  found,  in  their  declining  glories,  their 
most  formidable  enemies. 

Though  the  brightness  of  the  old  religion  of  Zoro- 
aster ceased  to  shine  after  the  Persian  conquests, 
and  religious  rites  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Magi, 
yet  it  is  the  only  Oriental  religion  which  entered  into 
Christianity  after  its  magnificent  triumph,  unless  we 
trace  early  monasticism  to  the  priests  of  India.  Chris- 
tianity had  a  hard  battle  with  Gnosticism  and  Mani- 
chaeism,  —  both  of  Persian  origin,  —  and  did  not  come 
out  unscathed.  No  Grecian  system  of  philosophy, 
except  Platonism,  entered  into  the  Christian  system 
so  influentially  as  the  disastrous  Manichsean  heresy, 
which  Augustine  combated.  The  splendid  mythology 
of  the  Greeks,  as  well  as  the  degrading  polytheism  of 
Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Phoenicia,  passed  away  before  the 
power  of  the  cross ;  but  Persian  speculations  remained. 
Even  Origen,  the  greatest  scholar  of  Christian  anti- 


64  ANCIENT  RELIGIONS. 

quity,  was  tainted  with  them.  And  the  mighty 
myths  of  the  origin  of  evil,  which  perplexed  Zoro- 
aster, still  remain  unsolved ;  but  the  belief  of  the  final 
triumph  of  good  over  evil  is  common  to  both  Chris- 
tians and  the  disciples  of  the  Bactrian    sage.  '■ 


AUTHORITIES. 

Rawlinson's  Egypt  and  Babylon;  History  of  Babylonia,  by 
A.  H.  Sayce;  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible;  Rawlinson's  He- 
rodotus ;  George  Smith's  History  of  Babylonia ;  Lenormant's 
Manuel  d'Histoire  Ancienne;  Layard's  Nineveh  and  Babylon; 
Journal  of  Royal  Asiatic  Society ;  Heeren's  Asiatic  Nations ; 
Dr.  Pusey's  Lectures  on  Daniel ;  Birch's  Egypt  from  the  Earliest 
Times ;  Brugsch's  History  of  Egypt ;  Records  of  the  Past ;  Raw- 
Knson's  History  of  Ancient  Egypt ;  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians ; 
Sayce's  Ancient  Empires  of  the  East ;  Rawlinson's  Religions  of  the 
Ancient  World;  James  Freeman  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions; 
Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt,  by  P.  Le  Page  Renouf;  Moffat's 
Comparative  History  of  Religions;  Bunsen's  Egypt's  Place  ia 
History;  Persia,  from  the  EarUest  Period,  by  W.  S.  W.  Vaux; 
Johnson's  Oriental  Religions ;  Haug's  Essays ;  Spiegel's  Avesta. 

The  above  are  the  more  prominent  authorities ;  but  the  niunber 
of  books  on  ancient  religions  is  very  large. 


KELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

BRAHMANISM    AND     BUDDHISM, 


RELIGIONS    OF    INDIA. 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM. 

THAT  form  of  ancient  religion  which  has  of  late 
excited  the  most  interest  is  Buddhism.  An  in- 
quiry into  its  characteristics  is  especially  interesting, 
since  so  large  a  part  of  the  human  race  —  nearly  five 
hundred  millions  out  of  the  thirteen  hundred  millions 
—  still  profess  to  embrace  the  doctrines  which  were 
taught  hy  Buddha,  although  his  religion  has  become 
so  corrupted  that  his  original  teachings  are  nearly 
lost  sight  of.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  doctrines 
of  Confucius.  The  religions  of  ancient  Egypt,  Assyria, 
and  Greece  have  utterly  passed  away,  and  what  we 
have  had  to  say  of  these  is  chiefly  a  matter  of  his- 
toric interest,  as  revealing  the  forms  assumed  by  the 
human  search  for  a  supernatural  Euler  when  moulded 
by  human  ambitions,  powers,  and  indulgence  in  the 
*'Iust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life,"  rather  than 
by  aspirations  toward  the  pure  and  the  spirituaL 


68  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

Buddha  was  the  great  reformer  of  the  religious  sys- 
tem of  the  Hindus,  although  he  lived  nearly  fifteen 
hundred  or  two  thousand  years  after  the  earliest 
Brahmanical  ascendency.  But  before  we  can  appre- 
ciate his  work  and  mission,  we  must  examine  the 
system  he  attempted  to  reform,  even  as  it  is  impos- 
sible to  present  the  Protestant  Eeformation  without 
first  considering  mediaeval  Catholicism  before  the  time 
of  Luther.  It  was  the  object  of  Buddha  to  break  the 
yoke  of  the  Brahmans,  and  to  release  his  country- 
men from  the  austerities,  the  sacrifices,  and  the  rigid 
sacerdotalism  which  these  ancient  priests  imposed, 
without  essentially  subverting  ancient  religious  ideas. 
He  was  a  moralist  and  reformer,  rather  than  the 
founder  of  a  religion. 

Brahmanism  is  one  of  the  oldest  religions  of  the 
world.  It  was  flourishing  in  India  at  a  period  before 
history  was  written.  It  was  coeval  with  the  religion 
of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  Abraham,  and  perhaps  at  a 
still  earlier  date.  But  of  its  earliest  form  and  extent 
we  know  nothing,  except  from  the  sacred  poems  of 
the  Hindus  called  the  Vedas,  written  in  Sanskrit 
probably  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ,  —  for 
even  the  date  of  the  earliest  of  the  Vedas  is  unknown. 
Fifty  years  ago  we  could  not  have  understood  the 
ancient  religions  of  India.  But  Sir  William  Jones 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  a  man  of  im- 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  69 

mense  erudition  and  genius  for  the  acquisition  of 
languages,  at  that  time  an  English  judge  in  India, 
prepared  the  way  for  the  study  of  Sanskrit,  the  liter- 
ary language  of  ancient  India,  by  the  translation  and 
publication  of  the  laws  of  Menu.  He  was  followed  in 
his  labors  by  the  Schlegels  of  Germany,  and  by  numer- 
ous scholars  and  missionaries.  Within  fifty  years  this 
ancient  and  beautiful  language  has  been  so  persever- 
ingly  studied  that  we  know  something  of  the  people 
by  whom  it  was  once  spoken,  —  even  as  Egyptologists 
have  revealed  something  of  ancient  Egypt  by  inter- 
preting the  hieroglyphics ;  and  Chaldsean  investigators 
have  found  stores  of  knowledge  in  the  Babylonian 
bricks. 

The  Sanskrit,  as  now  interpreted,  reveals  to  us  the 
meaning  of  those  poems  called  Vedas,  by  which  we 
are  enabled  to  understand  the  early  laws  and  religion 
of  the  Hindus.  It  is  poetry,  not  history,  which 
makes  this  revelation,  for  the  Hindus  have  no  his- 
tory farther  back  than  five  or  six  hundred  years 
before  Christ.  It  is  from  Homer  and  Hesiod  that 
we  get  an  idea  of  the  gods  of  Greece,  not  from  Herod- 
otus or  Xenophon. 

From  comparative  philology,  a  new  science,  of  which 
Prof.  Max  Miiller  is  one  of  the  greatest  expounders, 
we  learn  that  the  roots  of  various  European  languages, 
as  well  as  of  the  Latin  and  Greek,  are  substantially 


70  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

the  same  as  those  of  the  Sanskrit  spoken  by  the 
Hindus  thirty-five  hundred  years  ago,  from  which 
it  is  inferred  that  the  Hindus  were  a  people  of 
like  remote  origin  with  the  Greeks,  the  Italic  races 
(Romans,  Italians,  French),  the  Slavic  races  (Russian, 
Polish,  Bohemian),  the  Teutonic  races  of  England 
and  the  Continent,  and  the  Keltic  races.  These  are 
hence  alike  called  the  Indo-European  races;  and  as 
the  same  linguistic  roots  are  found  in  their  languages 
and  in  the  Zend-Avesta,  we  infer  that  the  ancient  Per- 
sians, or  inhabitants  of  Iran,  belonged  to  the  same 
great  Aryan  race. 

The  original  seat  of  this  race,  it  is  supposed,  was  in 
the  high  table-lands  of  Central  Asia,  in  or  near  Bac- 
tria,  east  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  north  and  west  of 
the  Himalaya  Mountains.  This  country  was  so  cold 
and  sterile  and  unpropitious  that  winter  predomi- 
nated, and  it  was  difficult  to  support  life.  But  the 
people,  inured  to  hardship  and  privation,  were  bold, 
hardy,  adventurous,  and  enterprising. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  process,  as  described  by  the 
philologists,  which  has  enabled  them,  by  tracing  the 
history  of  words  through  their  various  modifications 
in  dififerent  living  languages,  to  see  how  the  lines  of 
growth  converge  as  they  are  followed  back  to  the 
simple  Aryan  roots.  And  there,  getting  at  the  mean- 
ings of  the  things  or  thoughts  the  words  originally 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  71 

expressed,  we  see  revealed,  in  the  reconstruction  of 
a  language  that  no  longer  exists,  the  material  objects 
and  habits  of  thought  and  life  of  a  people  who  passed 
away  before  history  began,  —  so  imperishable  are  the 
unconscious  embodiments  of  mind,  even  in  the  airy 
and  unsubstantial  forms  of  unwritten  speech!  By 
this  process,  then,  we  learn  that  the  Aryans  were  a 
nomadic  people,  and  had  made  some  advance  in  civ- 
ilization. They  lived  in  houses  which  were  roofed, 
which  had  windows  and  doors.  Their  common  cereal 
was  barley,  the  grain  of  cold  climates.  Their  wealth 
was  in  cattle,  and  they  had  domesticated  the  cow,  the 
sheep,  the  goat,  the  horse,  and  the  dog.  They  used 
yokes,  axes,  and  ploughs.  They  wrought  in  various 
metals ;  they  spun  and  wove,  navigated  rivers  in  sail- 
boats, and  fought  with  bows,  lances,  and  swords.  They 
had  clear  perceptions  of  the  rights  of  property,  which 
were  based  on  land.  Their  morals  were  simple  and 
pure,  and  they  had  strong  natural  affections.  Polyg- 
amy was  unknown  among  them.  They  had  no  estab- 
lished sacerdotal  priesthood.  They  worshipped  the 
powers  of  Nature,  especially  fire,  the  source  of  light  and 
heat,  which  they  so  much  needed  in  their  dreary- 
land.  Authorities  differ  as  to  their  primeval  religion, 
some  supposing  that  it  was  monotheistic,  and  others 
polytheistic,  and  others  again  pantheistic. 

Most  of  the  ancient  nations  were  controlled  more  or 


72  JIELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

less  by  priests,  who,  as  their  power  increased,  instituted 
a  caste  to  perpetuate  their  influence.  Whether  or  not 
we  hold  the  primitive  religion  of  mankind  to  have 
been  a  pure  theism,  directly  revealed  by  God,  —  which 
is  my  own  conviction,  —  it  is  equally  clear  that  the 
form  of  religion  recorded  in  the  earliest  written  records 
of  poetry  or  legend  was  a  worship  of  the  sun  and 
moon  and  planets.  I  believe  this  to  have  been  a  cor- 
ruption of  original  theism;  many  think  it  to  have 
been  a  stage  of  upward  growth  in  the  religious  sense 
of  primitive  man.  In  all  the  ancient  nations  the  sun- 
god  was  a  prominent  deity,  as  the  giver  of  heat  and 
light,  and  hence  of  fertility  to  the  earth.  The  emblem 
of  the  sun  was  fire,  and  hence  fire  was  deified,  espe- 
cially among  the  Hindus,  under  the  name  of  Agni, — 
the  Latin  ignis. 

Fire,  caloric,  or  heat  in  some  form  was,  among  the 
ancient  nations,  supposed  to  be  the  animus  mundi.  In 
Egypt,  as  we  have  seen,  Osiris,  the  principal  deity, 
was  a  form  of  Ea,  the  sun-god.  In  Assyria,  Asshur, 
the  substitute  for  Ka,  was  the  supreme  deity.  In 
India  we  find  Mitra,  and  in  Persia  Mithra,  the  sun- 
god,  among  the  prominent  deities,  as  Helios  was  among 
the  Greeks,  and  Phoebus  Apollo  among  the  Eomans. 
The  sun  was  not  always  the  supreme  divinity,  but 
invariably  held  one  of  the  highest  places  in  the  Pagan 
pantheon. 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  73 

It  is  probable  that  the  religion  of  the  common 
progenitors  of  the  Hindus,  Persians,  Greeks,  Eomans, 
Kelts,  Teutons,  and  Slavs,  in  their  hard  and  sterile 
home  in  Central  Asia,  was  a  worship  of  the  pow- 
ers of  Nature  verging  toward  pantheism,  although 
the  earliest  of  the  Vedas  representing  the  ancient 
faith  seem  to  recognize  a  supreme  power  and  intelli- 
gence —  God  —  as  the  common  father  of  the  race,  to 
whom  prayers  and  sacrifices  were  devoutly  offered. 
Freeman  Clarke  quotes  from  Miiller's  "Ancient  San- 
skrit Literature  "  one  of  the  hymns  in  which  the  unity 
of  God  is  most  distinctly  recognized :  — • 

"  111  the  beginning  there  arose  the  Source  of  golden  light. 
He  was  the  only  Lord  of  all  that  is.  He  established  the 
earth  and  sky.  Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we  shall  oiFer  our 
sacrifices?  It  is  he  who  giveth  life,  who  giveth  strength, 
who  governeth  all  men  ;  through  whom  heaven  was  estab- 
lished,  and  the  earth  created." 

But  if  the  Supreme  God  whom  we  adore  was  recog- 
nized by  this  ancient  people,  he  was  soon  lost  sight  of 
in  the  multiplied  manifestations  of  his  power,  so  that 
Eawlinson  thinks  ^  that  when  the  Aryan  race  separated 
in  their  various  migrations,  which  resulted  in  what 
we  call  the  Indo-European  group  of  races,  there  was 
no  conception  of  a  single  supreme  power,  from  whom 
man  and  nature  have  alike  their  origin,  but  Nature- 
1  Religions  of  the  Ancient  World,  p.  105. 


74  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

worship,  ending  in  an  extensive  polytheism,  —  as 
among  the  Assyrians   and  Egyptians. 

As  to  these  Aryan  migrations,  we  do  not  know 
when  a  large  body  crossed  the  Himalaya  Mountains, 
and  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  but  probably 
it  was  at  least  two  thousand  years  before  Christ. 
Northern  India  had  great  attractions  to  those  hardy 
nomadic  people,  who  found  it  so  difficult  to  get  a 
living  during  the  long  winters  of  their  primeval  home. 
India  was  a  country  of  fruits  and  flowers,  with  an 
inexhaustible  soil,  favorable  to  all  kinds  of  produc- 
tion, where  but  little  manual  labor  was  required,  —  a 
country  abounding  in  every  kind  of  animals,  and  every 
kind  of  birds ;  a  land  of  precious  stones  and  min- 
erals, of  hills  and  valleys,  of  majestic  rivers  and  moun- 
tains, with  a  beautiful  climate  and  a  sunny  sky. 
These  Aryan  conquerors  drove  before  them  the  abo- 
riginal inhabitants,  who  were  chiefly  Mongolians,  or 
reduced  them  to  a  degrading  vassalage.  The  conquer- 
ing race  was  white,  the  conquered  was  dark,  though 
not  black ;  and  this  difference  of  color  was  one  of 
the   original  causes  of  Indian  caste. 

It  was  some  time  after  the  settlement  of  the  Aryans 
on  the  banks  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges  before  the 
Vedas  were  composed  by  the  poets,  who  as  usual  gave 
form  to  religious  belief,  as  they  did  in  Persia  and 
Greece.      These    poems,   or   hymns,  are  pantheistic. 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  75 

"There  is  no  recognition,"  says  Monier  Williams,  "of 
a  Supreme  God  disconnected  with  the  worship  of 
Nature."  There  was  a  vague  and  indefinite  worship 
of  the  Infinite  under  various  names,  such  as  the  sun, 
the  sky,  the  air,  the  dawn,  the  winds,  the  storms,  the 
waters,  the  rivers,  which  alike  charmed  and  terrified, 
and  seemed  to  be  instinct  with  life  and  power.  God 
was  in  all  things,  and  all  things  in  God;  but  there 
was  no  idea  of  providential  agency  or  of  personality. 

In  the  Vedic  hymns  the  number  of  gods  is  not 
numerous,  only  thirty-three.  The  chief  of  these  were 
Varuna,  the  sky;  Mitra,  the  sun;  and  Indra,  the  storm: 
after  these,  Agni,  fire ;  and  Soma,  the  moon.  The  wor- 
ship of  these  divinities  was  originally  simple,  consist- 
ing of  prayer,  praise,  and  offerings.  There  were  no 
temples  and  no  imposing  sacerdotalism,  although  the 
priests  were  numerous.  "  The  prayers  and  praises  de- 
scribe the  wisdom,  power,  and  goodness  of  the  deity 
addressed,"  ^  and  when  the  customary  offerings  had 
been  made,  the  worshipper  prayed  for  food,  life,  health, 
posterity,  wealth,  protection,  happiness,  whatever  the 
object  was,  —  generally  for  outward  prosperity  rather 
than  for  improvement  in  character,  or  for  forgiveness 
of  sin,  peace  of  mind,  or  power  to  resist  temptation. 
The  offerings  to  the  gods  were  propitiatory,  in  the 
form  of  victims,  or  libations  of  some  juice.     Nor  did 

1  Rawlinson,  p.  121. 
VOL.  I.  —  4 


76  RELIGIONS   OF  INDIA. 

these  early  Hindus  take  much  thought  of  a  future 
life.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Eig-Veda  of  a  belief 
in  the  transmigration  of  souls,^  although  the  Vedic 
bards  seem  to  have  had  some  hope  of  immortality. 
"  He  who  gives  alms,"  says  one  poet,  "  goes  to  the 
highest  place  in  heaven :  he  goes  to  the  gods."''  .  .  . 
Where  there  is  eternal  light,  in  the  world  where  the 
sun  is  placed,  —  in  that  immortal,  imperishable  world, 
place  me,  O  Soma !  .  .  .  Where  there  is  happiness  and 
delight,  where  joy  and  pleasures  reside,  where  the 
desires  of  our  heart  are  attained,  there  make  me 
immortal." 

In  the  oldest  Vedic  poems  there  were  great  sim- 
plicity and  joyousness,  without  allusion  to  those  rites, 
ceremonies,  and  sacrifices  which  formed  so  prominent 
a  part  of  the  religion  of  India  at  a  later  period. 

Four  hundred  years  after  the  Eig-Veda  was  com- 
posed we  come  to  the  Brahmanic  age,  when  the  laws 
of  Menu  were  written,  when  the  Aryans  were  living 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ganges,  and  the  caste  system 
had  become  national.  The  supreme  deity  is  no  longer 
one  of  the  powers  of  Nature,  like  Mitra  or  Indra,  but 
according  to  Menu  he  is  Brahm,  or  Brahma,  —  "an 
eternal,  unchangeable,  absolute  being,  the  soul  of  all 
beings,  who,  having  willed  to  produce  various  beings 

^  Wilson :  Rig-Veda,  vol.  iil.  p.  1 70. 

*  MUller:  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,  vol.  i.  p.  46. 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  77 

from  his  own  divine  substance,  created  the  waters  and 
placed  in  them  a  productive  seed.  The  seed  became 
an  egg,  and  in  that  egg  he  was  born,  but  sat  inactive 
for  a  year,  when  he  caused  the  egg  to  divide  itself; 
and  from  its  two  divisions  he  framed  the  heaven 
above,  and  the  earth  beneath.  From  the  supreme 
soul  Brahma  drew  forth  mind,  existing  substantially, 
though  unperceived  by  the  senses;  and  before  mind, 
the  reasoning  power,  he  produced  consciousness,  the 
internal  monitor;  and  before  them  both  he  produced 
the  great  principle  of  the  soul.  .  .  .  The  soul  is,  in 
its  substance,  from  Brahma  himself,  and  is  destined 
finally  to  be  resolved  into  him.  The  soul,  then,  is 
simply  an  emanation  from  Brahma ;  but  it  will  not 
return  unto  him  at  death  necessarily,  but  must  mi- 
grate from  body  to  body,  until  it  is  purified  by  pro- 
found abstraction  and  emancipated  from  all  desires." 

This  is  the  substance  of  the  Hindu  pantheism  as 
taught  by  the  laws  of  Menu.  It  accepts  God,  but 
without  personality  or  interference  with  the  world's 
affairs,  —  not  a  God  to  be  loved,  scarcely  to  be  feared, 
but  a  mere  abstraction  of  the  mind. 

The  theology  which  is  thus  taught  in  the  Brahman- 
ical  Yedas,  it  would  seem,  is  the  result  of  lofty  ques- 
tionings and  profound  meditation  on  the  part  of  the 
Indian  sages  or  priests,  rather  than  the  creation  of 
poets. 


78  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

In  the  laws  of  Menu,  intended  to  exalt  the  Brah- 
manical  caste,  we  read,  as  translated  by  Sir  William 
Jones : — 

"To  a  man  contaminated  by  sensuality,  neither  the 
Vedas,  nor  liberality,  nor  sacrifices,  nor  strict  observances, 
nor  pious  austerities,  ever  procure  felicity.  .  .  .  Let  not  a 
man  be  proud  of  his  rigorous  devotion ;  let  him  not,  having 
sacrificed,  utter  a  falsehood ;  having  made  a  donation,  let 
him  never  proclaim  it.  .  .  .  By  falsehood  the  sacrifice  be- 
comes vain;  by  pride  the  merit  of  devotion  is  lost.  .  .  . 
Single  is  each  man  bom,  single  he  dies,  single  he  receives 
the  reward  of  the  good,  and  single  the  punishment  of  his 
evil,  deeds.  ...  By  forgiveness  of  injuries  the  learned  are 
purified;  by  liberality,  those  who  have  neglected  their  duty; 
by  pious  meditation,  those  who  have  secret  thoughts ;  by 
devout  austerity,  those  who  best  know  the  Vedas.  .  .  . 
Bodies  are  cleansed  by  water;  the  mind  is  purified  by 
truth ;  the  vital  spirit,  by  theology  and  devotion ;  the  im- 
derstanding,  by  clear  knowledge.  ...  A  faithful  wife  who 
"wishes  to  attain  in  heaven  the  mansion  of  her  husband, 
must  do  nothing  unkind  to  him,  be  he  living  or  dead ;  let 
her  not,  when  her  lord  is  deceased,  even  pronounce  the 
name  of  another  man ;  let  her  continue  till  death,  forgiving 
all  injuries,  performing  harsh  duties,  avoiding  every  sensual 
pleasure,  and  cheerfully  practising  the  incomparable  rules 
of  virtue.  .  .  .  The  soul  itself  is  its  own  witness,  the  soul 
itself  is  its  own  refuge ;  oflFend  not  thy  conscious  soul,  the 
supreme  internal  witness  of  toan.  ...  0  friend  to  virtue. 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  79 

the  Supreme  Spirit,  which  is  the  same  as  thyself,  resides  in 
thj  bosom  perpetually,  and  is  an  all-knowing  inspector  of 
thy  goodness  or  wickedness." 

Such  were  the  truths  uttered  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges  one  thousand  years  before  Christ.  But  with 
these  views  there  is  an  exaltation  of  the  Brahmanical 
or  sacerdotal  life,  hard  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
recognition  of  divine  qualities.  "  From  his  high  birth," 
says  Menu,  "  a  Brahman  is  an  object  of  veneration, 
even  to  deities."  Hence,  great  things  are  expected  of 
him ;  his  food  must  be  roots  and  fruit,  his  clothing  of 
bark  fibres;  he  must  spend  his  time  in  reading  the 
Vedas ;  he  is  to  practise  austerities  by  exposing  himself 
to  heat  and  cold;  he  is  to  beg  food  but  once  a  day; 
he  must  be  careful  not  to  destroy  the  life  of  the  small- 
est insect;  he  must  not  taste  intoxicating  liquors.  A 
Brahman  who  has  thus  mortified  his  body  by  these 
modes  is  exalted  into  the  divine  essence.  This  was 
the  early  creed  of  the  Brahman  before  corruption  set 
in.  And  in  these  things  we  see  a  striking  resemblance 
to  the  doctrines  of  Buddha.  Had  there  been  no  cor- 
ruption of  Brahmanism,  there  would  have  been  no 
Buddhism ;  for  the  principles  of  Buddhism  were  those 
of  early  Brahmanism. 

But  Brahmanism  became  corrupted.  Like  the  Mo- 
saic Law,  under  the  sedulous  care  of  the  sacerdotal 
orders  it  ripened  into  a  most  burdensome  ritualism. 


80  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

The  Brahmanical  caste  became  tyrannical,  exacting, 
and  oppressive.  With  the  supposed  sacredness  of  his 
person,  and  with  the  laws  made  in  his  favor,  the 
Brahman  became  intolerable  to  the  people,  who  were 
ground  down  by  sacrifices,  expiatory  offerings,  and 
wearisome  and  minute  ceremonies  of  worship.  Caste 
destroyed  all  ideas  of  human  brotherhood;  it  robbed 
the  soul  of  its  affections  and  its  aspirations.  Like  the 
Pharisees  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  the  Brahmans  became 
oppressors  of  the  people.  As  in  Pagan  Egypt  and 
in  Christian  mediaeval  Europe,  the  priests  held  the 
keys  of  heaven  and  hell ;  their  power  was  more  than 
DruidicaL 

But  the  Brahman,  when  true  to  the  laws  of  Menu, 
led  in  one  sense  a  lofty  life.  Nor  can  we  despise  a 
religion  which  recognized  the  value  and  immortality 
of  the  soul,  a  state  of  future  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, though  its  worship  was  encumbered  by  rites, 
ceremonies,  and  sacrifices.  It  was  spiritual  in  its  es- 
sential peculiarities,  having  reference  to  another  world 
rather  than  to  this,  which  is  more  than  we  can  say  of 
the  religion  of  the  Greeks ;  it  was  not  worldly  in  its 
ends,  seeking  to  save  the  soul  rather  than  to  pam- 
per the  body ;  it  had  aspirations  after  a  higher  life ; 
it  was  profoundly  reverential,  recognizing  a  supreme 
intelligence  and  power,  indefinitely  indeed,  but  sin- 
cerely,—  not  an   incarnated    deity    like   the   Zeus   of 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  81 

the  Greeks,  but  an  infinite  Spirit,  pervading  the  uni- 
verse. The  pantheism  of  the  Brahmans  was  better 
than  the  godless  materialism  of  the  Chinese.  It  as- 
pired to  rise  to  a  knowledge  of  God  as  the  supremest 
wisdom  and  grandest  attainment  of  mortal  man.  It 
made  too  much  of  sacrifices;  but  sacrifices  were  com- 
mon to  all  the  ancient  religions  except  the  Persian. 

"  He  who  through  knowledge  or  religious  acts 
Henceforth  attains  to  immortality, 
Shall  first  present  his  body,  Death,  to  thee." 

Whether  human  sacrifices  were  offered  in  India  when 
the  Vedas  were  composed  we  do  not  know,  but  it  is 
believed  to  be  probable.  The  oldest  form  of  sacrifice 
was  the  offering  of  food  to  the  deity.  Dr.  H.  C.  Trum- 
bull, in  his  work  on  "The  Blood  Covenant,"  thinks  that 
the  origin  of  animal  sacrifices  was  like  that  of  circum- 
cision, —  a  pouring  out  of  blood  (the  universal,  ancient 
symbol  of  life)  as  a  sign  of  devotion  to  the  deity ;  and 
the  substitution  of  animals  was  a  natural  and  neces- 
sary mode  of  making  this  act  of  consecration  a  frequent 
and  continuing  one.  This  presents  a  nobler  view  of 
the  whole  sacrificial  system  than  the  common  one. 
Yet  doubtless  the  latter  soon  prevailed ;  for  following 
upon  the  devoted  life-offerings  to  the  Divine  Friend, 
came  propitiatory  rites  to  appease  divine  anger  or  gain 
divine  favor.  Then  came  in  the  natural  human  self- 
seeking  of  the  sacerdotal  class,  for  the  multiplication 


82  nELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

of  sacrifices  tended  to  exalt  the  priesthood,  and  thus 
to  perpetuate  caste. 

Again,  the  Brahmans,  if  practising  austerities  to 
weaken  sensual  desires,  like  the  monks  of  Syria  and 
Upper  Egypt,  were  meditative  and  intellectual ;  they 
evolved  out  of  their  brains  whatever  was  lofty  in 
their  system  of  religion  and  philosophy.  Constant 
and  profound  meditation  on  the  soul,  on  God,  and 
on  immortality  was  not  without  its  natural  results. 
They  explored  the  world  of  metaphysical  specula- 
tion. There  is  scarcely  an  hypothesis  advanced  by 
philosophers  in  ancient  or  modem  times,  which  may 
not  be  found  in  the  Brahmanical  writings.  "  We  find 
in  the  writings  of  these  Hindus  materialism,  atom- 
ism, pantheism,  Pyrrhonism,  idealism.  They  antici- 
pated Plato,  Kant,  and  Hegel.  They  could  boast  of 
their  Spinozas  and  their  Humes  long  before  Alexan- 
der dreamed  of  crossing  the  Indus.  From  them  the 
Pythagoreans  borrowed  a  great  part  of  their  mystical 
philosophy,  of  their  doctrine  of  transmigration  of  souls, 
and  the  unlawfulness  of  eating  animal  food.  From 
.them  Aristotle  learned  the  syllogism.  ...  In  India 
the  human  mind  exhausted  itself  in  attempting  to 
detect  the  laws  which  regulate  its  operation,  before 
the  philosophers  of  Greece  were  beginning  to  enter 
the  precincts  of  metaphysical  inquiry."  This  intel- 
lectual   subtlety,    acumen,    and    logical    power    the 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  83 

Brahmans  never  lost.  To-day  the  Christian  mission- 
ary finds  them  his  superiors  in  the  sports  of  logical 
tournaments,  whenever  the  Brahman  condescends  to 
put  forth  his  powers  of  reasoning. 

Brahmanism  carried  idealism  to  the  extent  of  de- 
nying any  reality  to  sense  or  matter,  declaring  that 
sense  is  a  delusion.  It  sought  to  leave  the  soul  eman- 
cipated from  desire,  from  a  material  body,  in  a  state 
which  according  to  Indian  metaphysics  is  heing^  but 
not  existence.  Desire,  anger,  ignorance,  evil  thoughts 
are  consumed  by  the  fire  of  knowledge. 

But  I  will  not  attempt  to  explain  the  ideal  panthe- 
ism which  Brahmanical  philosophers  substituted  for 
the  Nature-worship  taught  in  the  earlier  Vedas.  This 
proved  too  abstract  for  the  people ;  and  the  Brahmans, 
in  the  true  spirit  of  modem  Jesuitism,  wishing  to 
accommodate  their  religion  to  the  people,  —  who  were 
in  bondage  to  their  tyranny,  and  who  have  ever  been 
inclined  to  sensuous  worship,  —  multiplied  their  sacri- 
fices and  sacerdotal  rites,  and  even  permitted  a  compli- 
cated polytheism.  Gradually  piety  was  divorced  from 
morality.  Siva  and  Vishnu  became  worshipped,  as 
well  as  Brahma  and  a  host  of  other  gods  unknown  to 
the  earlier  Vedas. 

In  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  the  corruption 
of  society  had  become  so  flagrant  under  the  teachings 
and  government  of  the  Brahmans,  that  a  reform  was 


84  RELIGIONS   OF  INDIA. 

imperatively  needed.  "  The  pride  of  race  had  put  an 
impassable  barrier  between  the  Aryan-Hindus  and 
the  conquered  aborigines,  while  the  pride  of  both  had 
built  up  an  equally  impassable  barrier  between  the 
different  classes  among  the  Aryan  people  themselves." 
The  old  childhke  joy  in  life,  so  manifest  in  the  Vedas, 
had  died  away.  A  funereal  gloom  hung  over  the 
land;  and  the  gloomiest  people  of  all  were  the  Brah- 
mans  themselves,  devoted  to  a  complicated  ritual  of 
ceremonial  observances,  to  needless  and  cruel  sac- 
rifices, and  a  repulsive  theology.  The  worship  of 
Nature  had  degenerated  into  the  worship  of  impure 
divinities.  The  priests  were  inflated  with  a  puerile 
but  sincere  belief  in  their  own  divinity,  and  inculcated 
a  sense  of  duty  which  was  nothing  else  than  a  degrad- 
ing slavery  to  their  own  caste. 

Under  these  circumstances  Buddhism  arose  as  a 
protest  against  Brahmanism.  But  it  was  rather  an 
ethical  than  a  religious  movement ;  it  was  an  attempt 
to  remove  misery  from  the  world,  and  to  elevate  ordi- 
nary life  by  a  reform  of  morals.  It  was  effected  by 
a  prince  who  goes  by  the  name  of  Buddha,  —  the  "  En- 
lightened," —  who  was  supposed  by  his  later  followers 
to  be  an  incarnation  of  Deity,  miraculously  conceived, 
and  sent  into  the  world  to  save  men.  He  was  nearly 
contemporary  with  Confucius,  although  the  Buddhistic 
doctrines  were  not  introduced  into  China  until  about 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  85 

two  hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era.  He  is 
supposed  to  have  belonged  to  a  warlike  tribe  called 
SS-kyas,  of  great  reputed  virtue,  engaged  in  agricultural 
pursuits,  who  had  entered  northern  India  and  made  a 
permanent  settlement  several  hundred  years  before. 
The  name  by  which  the  reformer  is  generally  known  is 
Gautama,  borrowed  by  the  Sakyas  after  their  settle- 
ment in  India  from  one  of  the  ancient  Vedic  bard- 
families.  The  foundation  of  our  knowledge  of  Sakya 
Buddha  is  from  a  Life  of  him  by  Asvaghosha,  in  the 
first  century  of  our  era ;  and  this  life  is  again  founded 
on  a  legendary  history,  not  framed  after  any  Indian 
model,  but  worked  out  among  the  nations  in  the  north 
of  India. 

The  Life  of  Buddha  by  Asvaghosha  is  a  poetical 
romance  of  nearly  ten  thousand  lines.  It  relates  the 
miraculous  conception  of  the  Indian  sage,  by  the 
descent  of  a  spirit  on  his  mother,  Maya,  —  a  woman 
of  great  purity  of  mind.  The  child  was  called  Sid- 
dartha,  or  "the  perfection  of  all  things."  His  father 
ruled  a  considerable  territory,  and  was  careful  to  con- 
ceal from  the  boy,  as  he  grew  up,  all  knowledge  of 
the  wickedness  and  misery  of  the  world.  He  was 
therefore  carefully  educated  within  the  walls  of  the 
palace,  and  surrounded  with  every  luxury,  but  not 
allowed  even  to  walk  or  drive  in  the  royal  gardens 
for  fear  he  might  see  misery  and  sorrow.     A  beautiful 


86  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

girl  was  given  to  him  in  marriage,  full  of  dignity  and 
grace,  with  whom  he  lived  in  supreme  happiness. 

At  length,  as  his  mind  developed  and  his  curiosity 
increased  to  see  and  know  things  and  people  beyond 
the  narrow  circle  to  which  he  was  confined,  he  ob- 
tained permission  to  see  the  gardens  which  surrounded 
the  palace.  His  father  took  care  to  remove  every- 
thing in  his  way  which  could  suggest  misery  and 
sorrow;  but  a  deva,  or  angel,  assumed  the  form  of 
an  aged  man,  and  stood  beside  his  path,  apparently 
struggling  for  life,  weak  and  oppressed.  This  was 
a  new  sight  to  the  prince,  who  inquired  of  his  chari- 
oteer what  kind  of  a  man  it  was.  Forced  to  reply, 
the  charioteer  told  him  that  this  infirm  old  man  had 
once  been  young,  sportive,  beautiful,  and  full  of 
every  enjoyment. 

On  hearing  this,  the  prince  sank  into  profound 
meditation,  and  returned  to  the  palace  sad  and  re- 
flective; for  he  had  learned  that  the  common  lot  of 
man  is  sad,  —  that  no  matter  how  beautiful,  strong, 
and  sportive  a  boy  is,  the  time  will  come,  in  the 
course  of  Nature,  when  this  boy  will  be  wrinkled, 
infirm,  and  helpless.  He  became  so  miserable  and 
dejected  on  this  discovery  that  his  father,  to  divert 
his  mind,  arranged  other  excursions  for  him ;  but  on 
each  occasion  a  deva  contrived  to  appear  before 
him  in  the  form  of  some  disease  or  misery.     At  last 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  87 

he  saw  a  dead  man  carried  to  his  grave,  which  still 
more  deeply  agitated  him,  for  he  had  not  known 
that  this  calamity  was  the  common  lot  of  all  men. 
The  same  painful  impression  was  made  on  him  by 
the  death  of  animals,  and  by  the  hard  labors  and  priva- 
tions of  poor  people.  The  more  he  saw  of  life  as  it 
was,  the  more  he  was  overcome  by  the  sight  of  sorrow 
and  hardship  on  every  side.  He  became  aware  that 
youth,  vigor,  and  strength  of  life  in  the  end  fulfilled 
the  law  of  ultimate  destruction.  While  meditating 
on  this  sad  reality  beneath  a  flowering  Jambu  tree, 
where  he  was  seated  in  the  profoundest  contempla- 
tion, a  devay  transformed  into  a  religious  ascetic,  came 
to  him  and  said,  "  I  am  a  Shaman.  Depressed  and 
sad  at  the  thought  of  age,  disease,  and  death,  I  have 
left  my  home  to  seek  some  way  of  rescue ;  yet  every- 
where I  find  these  evils,  —  all  things  hasten  to  de- 
cay. Therefore  I  seek  that  happiness  which  is  only 
to  be  found  in  that  which  never  perishes,  that  never 
knew  a  beginning,  that  looks  with  equal  mind  on 
enemy  and  friend,  that  heeds  not  wealth  nor  beauty,  — 
the  happiness  to  be  found  in  solitude,  in  some  dell 
free  from  molestation,  all  thought  about  the  world 
destroyed." 

This  embodies  the  soul  of  Buddhism,  its  elemental 
principle,  —  to  escape  from  a  world  of  misery  and 
death ;  to  hide  oneself  in  contemplation  in  some  lonely 


88  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

spot,  where  indifference  to  passing  events  is  gradually 
acquired,  where  life  becomes  one  grand  negation,  and 
where  the  thoughts  are  fixed  on  what  is  eternal  and 
imperishable,  instead  of  on  the  mortal  and  transient. 

The  prince,  who  was  now  about  thirty  years  of  age, 
after  this  interview  with  the  supposed  ascetic,  firmly 
resolved  himself  to  become  a  hermit,  and  thus  attain 
to  a  higher  life,  and  rise  above  the  misery  which  he 
saw  around  him  on  every  hand.  So  he  clandestinely 
and  secretly  escapes  from  his  guarded  palace ;  lays 
aside  his  princely  habits  and  ornaments ;  dismisses  all 
attendants,  and  even  his  horse;  seeks  the  companion- 
ship of  Brahmans,  and  learns  all  their  penances  and 
tortures.  Finding  a  patient  trial  of  this  of  no  avail  for 
his  purpose,  he  leaves  the  Brahmans,  and  repairs  to  a 
quiet  spot  by  the  banks  of  a  river,  and  for  six  years 
practises  the  most  severe  fasting  and  profound  medita- 
tion. This  was  the  form  which  piety  had  assumed  in 
India  from  time  immemorial,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Brahmans;  for  Sidd&rtha  as  yet  is  not  the  "enlight- 
ened,"—  he  is  only  an  inquirer  after  that  saving 
knowledge  which  will  open  the  door  of  a  divine  felicity, 
and  raise  him  above  a  world  of  disease  and  death. 

SiddRrtha's  rigorous  austerities,  however,  do  not  open 
this  door  of  saving  truth.  His  body  is  wasted,  and 
his  strength  fails ;  he  is  near  unto  death.  The  con- 
viction fastens  on  his  lofty  and  inquiring  mind  that  to 


BRAHMAN  ISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  89 

arrive  at  the  end  he  seeks  he  must  enter  by  some  other 
door  than  that  of  painful  and  useless  austerities,  and 
hence  that  the  teachings  of  the  Brahmans  are  funda- 
mentally wrong.  He  discovers  that  no  amount  of 
austerities  will  extinguish  desire,  or  produce  ecstatic 
contemplation.  In  consequence  of  these  reflections 
a  great  change  comes  over  him,  which  is  the  turning- 
point  of  his  history.  He  resolves  to  quit  his  self- 
inflicted  torments  as  of  no  avail.  He  meets  a  shep- 
herd's daughter,  who  offers  him  food  out  of  com- 
passion for  his  emaciated  and  miserable  condition. 
The  rich  rice  milk,  sweet  and  perfumed,  restores 
his  strength.  He  renounces  asceticism,  and  wanders 
to  a  spot  more  congenial  to  his  changed  views  and 
condition. 

Siddartha's  full  enlightenment,  however,  has  not  yet 
come.  Under  the  shade  of  the  B8dhi  tree  he  devotes 
himself  again  to  religious  contemplation,  and  falls 
into  rapt  ecstasies.  He  remains  a  while  in  peaceful 
quiet ;  the  morning  sunbeams,  the  dispersing  mists,  and 
lovely  flowers  seem  to  pay  tribute  to  him.  He  passes 
through  successive  stages  of  ecstasy,  and  suddenly 
upon  his  opened  mind  bursts  the  knowledge  of  his 
previous  births  in  different  forms ;  of  the  causes  of 
re-birth,  —  ignorance  (the  root  of  evil)  and  unsatisfied 
desires  ;  and  of  the  way  to  extinguish  desires  by  right 
thinking,  speaking,  and  living,  not  by  outward  observ- 


90  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

ance  of  forms  and  ceremonies.  He  is  emancipated 
from  the  thraldom  of  those  austerities  which  have 
formed  the  basis  of  religious  life  for  generations  un- 
known, and  he  resolves  to  teach. 

Buddha  travels  slowly  to  the  sacred  city  of  Benares, 
converting  by  the  way  even  Brahmans  themselves. 
He  claims  to  have  reached  perfect  wisdom.  He  is 
followed  by  disciples,  for  there  was  something  attrac- 
tive and  extraordinary  about  him ;  his  person  was 
beautiful  and  commanding.  While  he  shows  that 
painful  austerities  will  not  produce  wisdom,  he  also 
teaches  that  wisdom  is  not  reached  by  self-indulgence ; 
that  there  is  a  middle  path  between  penance  and 
pleasures,  even  temperance,  —  the  use,  but  not  abuse, 
of  the  good  things  of  earth.  In  his  first  sermon  he 
declares  that  sorrow  is  in  self ;  therefore  to  get  rid  of 
sorrow  is  to  get  rid  of  self.  The  means  to  this  end 
is  to  forget  self  in  deeds  of  mercy  and  kindness  to 
others ;  to  crucify  demoralizing  desires ;  to  live  in  the 
realm  of  devout  contemplation. 

The  active  life  of  Buddha  now  begins,  and  for  fifty 
years  he  travels  from  place  to  place  as  a  teacher, 
gathers  around  him  disciples,  frames  rules  for  his 
society,  and  brings  within  his  community  both  the 
rich  and  poor.  He  even  allows  women  to  enter  it. 
He  thus  matures  his  system,  which  is  destined  to  be 
embraced  by  so  large  a  part  of  the  human  race,  and 


BRAIIMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  91 

finally  dies  at  the  age  of  eighty,  surrounded  by  rev- 
erential followers,  who  see  in  him  an  incarnation 
of  the  Deity. 

Thus  Buddha  devoted  his  life  to  the  welfare  of  men, 
moved  by  an  exceeding  tenderness  and  pity  for  the 
objects  of  misery  which  he  beheld  on  every  side.  He 
attempted  to  point  out  a  higher  life,  by  which  sorrow 
would  be  forgotten.  He  could  not  prevent  sorrow 
culminating  in  old  age,  disease,  and  death;  but  he 
hoped  to  make  men  ignore  their  miseries,  and  thus 
rise  above  them  to  a  beatific  state  of  devout  contem- 
plation and  the  practice  of  virtues,  for  which  he  laid 
down  certain  rules  and  regulations. 

It  is  astonishing  how  the  new  doctrines  spread, — 
from  India  to  China,  from  China  to  Japan  and  Ceylon, 
until  Eastern  Asia  was  filled  with  pagodas,  temples, 
and  monasteries  to  attest  his  influence;  some  eighty- 
five  thousand  existed  in  China  alone.  Buddha  probably 
had  as  many  converts  in  China  as  Confucius  himself. 
The  Buddhists  from  time  to  time  were  subjected  to 
great  persecution  from  the  emperors  of  China,  in  which 
their  sacred  books  were  destroyed;  and  in  India  the 
Brahmans  at  last  regained  their  power,  and  expelled 
Buddhism  from  the  country.  In  the  year  845  a.d,  two 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  monks  and  nuns  were 
made  to  return  to  secular  life  in  China,  being  regarded 
^=5  mere  drones,  —  lazy  and   useless  members   of  the 

VOL.  T,  —  5 


92  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 


community.  But  the  policy  of  persecution  was  re- 
versed by  succeeding  emperors.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  there  were  in  China  nearly  fifty  thousand 
Buddhist  temples  and  two  hundred  and  thirteen 
thousand  monks ;  and  these  represented  but  a  frac- 
tion of  the  professed  adherents  of  the  religion.  Under 
the  present  dynasty  the  Buddhists  are  proscribed,  but 
still  they  flourish. 

Now,  what  has  given  to  the  religion  of  Buddha  such 
an  extraordinary  attraction  for  the  people  of  Eastern 
Asia? 

Buddhism  has  a  twofold  aspect, — practical  and 
speculative.  In  its  most  definite  form  it  was  a  moral 
and  philanthropic  movement,  —  the  reaction  against 
Brahmanism,  which  had  no  humanity,  and  which  was 
as  repulsive  and  oppressive  as  Eoman  Catholicism  was 
when  loaded  down  with  ritualism  and  sacerdotal  rites, 
when  Europe  was  governed  by  priests,  when  churches 
were  damp,  gloomy  crypts,  before  the  tall  cathedrals 
arose  in  their  artistic  beauty. 

From  a  religious  and  philosophical  point  of  view, 
Buddhism  at  first  did  not  materially  differ  from  Brah- 
manism. The  same  dreamy  pietism,  the  same  belief 
in  the  transmigration  of  souls,  the  same  pantheistic 
ideas  of  God  and  Nature,  the  same  desire  for  rest  and 
final  absorption  in  the  divine  essence  characterized 
both.     In  both  there  was  a  certain  principle  of  faiih. 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  93 

which  was  a  feeling  of  reverence  rather  than  the 
recognition  of  the  unity  and  personality  and  provi- 
dence of  God.  The  prayer  of  the  Buddhist  was  a 
yearning  for  deliverance  from  sorrow,  a  hope  of  final 
rest;  but  this  was  not  to  be  attained  until  desires 
and  passions  were  utterly  suppressed  in  the  soul, 
which  could  be  effected  only  by  prayer,  devout  medi- 
tations, and  a  rigorous  self-discipline.  In  order  to 
be  purified  and  fitted  for  Nirvana  the  soul,  it  was 
supposed,  must  pass  through  successive  stages  of  ex- 
istence in  mortal  forms,  without  conscious  recollec- 
tion, —  innumerable  births  and  deaths,  with  sorrow 
and  disease.  And  the  final  state  of  supreme  blessed- 
ness, the  ending  of  the  long  and  weary  transmigra- 
tion, would  be  attained  only  with  the  extinction  of  all 
desires,  even  the  instinctive  desire  for  existence. 

Buddha  had  no  definite  ideas  of  the  deity,  and  the 
worship  of  a  personal  God  is  nowhere  to  be  found 
in  his  teachings,  which  exposed  him  to  the  charge  of 
atheism.  He  even  supposed  that  gods  were  subject 
to  death,  and  must  return  to  other  forms  of  life  before 
they  obtained  final  rest  in  Nirvana.  Nirvana  means 
that  state  which  admits  of  neither  birth  nor  death, 
where  there  is  no  sorrow  or  disease,  —  an  impassive 
state  of  existence,  absorption  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Uni- 
verse. In  the  Buddhist  catechism  Nirvana  is  defined 
as  the  "  total  cessation  of  changes ;  a  perfect  rest ;  the 


94  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

absence  of  desire,  illusion,  and  sorrow ;  the  total 
obliteration  of  everything  that  goes  to  make  up  the 
physical  man."  This  theory  of  re-births,  or  transmi- 
gration of  souls,  is  very  strange  and  unnatural  to  our 
less  imaginative  and  subtile  Occidental  minds ;  but  to 
the  speculative  Orientals  it  is  an  attractive  and  rea- 
sonable belief.  They  make  the  "  spirit  "  the  immortal 
part  of  man,  the  "  soul "  being  its  emotional  embodi- 
ment, its  "  spiritual  body,"  whose  unsatisfied  desires 
cause  its  birth  and  re-birth  into  the  fleshly  form  of 
the  physical  "  body,"  —  a  very  brief  and  temporary  in- 
carnation. When  by  the  progressive  enlightenment  of 
the  spirit  its  longings  and  desires  have  been  gradually 
conquered,  it  no  longer  needs  or  has  embodiment  either 
of  soul  or  of  body ;  so  that,  to  quote  Elliott  Coues  in 
Olcott's  "Buddhist  Catechism,"  "a  spirit  in  a  state 
of  conscious  formlessness,  subject  to  no  further  modi- 
fication by  embodiment,  yet  in  full  knowledge  of 
its  experiences  [during  its  various  incarnations],  is 
Nirvanic." 

Buddhism,  however,  viewed  in  any  aspect,  must  be 
regarded  as  a  gloomy  religion.  It  is  hard  enough  to 
crucify  all  natural  desires  and  lead  a  life  of  self- 
abnegation  ;  but  for  the  spirit,  in  order  to  be  purified, 
to  be  obliged  to  enter  into  body  after  body,  each 
subject  to  disease,  misery,  and  death,  and  then  after 
a  long  series  of  migrations  to  be  virtually  annihilated 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BCDDHISM.  96 

as  the  highest  consummation  of  happiness,  gives  one 
but  a  poor  conception  of  the  efforts  of  the  proudest 
unaided  intellect  to  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  God  and 
immortal  bliss.  It  would  thus  seem  that  the  true 
idea  of  God,  or  even  that  of  immortality,  is  not  an 
innate  conception  revealed  by  consciousness;  for  why 
should  good  and  intellectual  men,  trained  to  study 
and  reflection  all  their  lives,  gain  no  clearer  or  more 
inspiring  notions  of  the  Being  of  infinite  love  and 
power,  or  of  the  happiness  which  He  is  able  and 
willing  to  impart  ?  "What  a  feeble  conception  of  God 
is  a  being  without  the  oversight  of  the  worlds  that 
he  created,  without  volition  or  purpose  or  benevo- 
lence, or  anything  corresponding  to  our  notion  of 
personality !  What  a  poor  conception  of  supernal 
bliss,  without  love  or  action  or  thought  or  holy  com- 
panionship, —  only  rest,  unthinking  repose,  and  ab- 
sence from  disease,  misery,  and  death,  a  state  of  endless 
impassiveness  !  What  is  Nirvana  but  an  escape  from 
death  and  deliverance  from  mortal  desires,  where  there 
are  neither  ideas  nor  the  absence  of  ideas ;  no  changes 
or  hopes  or  fears,  it  is  true,  but  also  no  joy,  no  aspira- 
tion, no  growth,  no  life,  —  a  state  of  nonentity,  where 
even  consciousness  is  practically  extinguished,  and  in- 
dividuality merged  into  absolute  stillness  and  a  dream- 
less rest  ?  What  a  poor  reward  for  ages  of  struggle 
and  the  final  achievement  of  exalted  virtue ! 


96  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA. 

But  if  Buddhism  failed  to  arrive  at  what  we  believe 
to  be  a  true  knowledge  of  God  and  the  destiny  of  the 
soul,  —  the  forgiveness  and  remission,  or  doing-away, 
of  sin,  and  a  joyful  and  active  immortality,  all  which 
I  take  to  be  revelations  rather  than  intuitions,  —  yet 
there  were  some  great  certitudes  in  its  teachings  which 
did  appeal  to  consciousness,  —  certitudes  recognized 
by  the  noblest  teachers  of  all  ages  and  nations. 
These  were  such  realities  as  truthfulness,  sincerity, 
purity,  justice,  mercy,  benevolence,  unselfishness,  love. 
The  human  mind  arrives  at  ethical  truths,  even  when 
all  speculation  about  God  and  immortality  has  failed. 
The  idea  of  God  may  be  lost,  but  not  that  of  moral 
obligation,  —  the  mutual  social  duties  of  mankind. 
There  is  a  sense  of  duty  even  among  savages ;  in  the 
lowest  civilization  there  is  true  admiration  of  virtue. 
No  sage  that  I  ever  read  of  enjoined  immorality.  No 
ignorance  can  prevent  the  sense  of  shame,  of  honor, 
or  of  duty.  Everybody  detests  a  liar  and  despises  a 
thief.  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness ;  thou  shalt 
not  commit  adultery ;  thou  shalt  not  kill,  —  these  are 
laws  written  in  human  consciousness  as  well  as  in  the 
code  of  Moses.  Obedience  and  respect  to  parents  are 
instincts  as  well  as  obligations. 

Hence  the  prince  Siddartha,  as  soon  as  he  had 
found  the  wisdom  of  inward  motive  and  the  folly  of 
outward  rite,  shook  off  the  yoke   of  the  priests,  and 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  97 

denounced  caste  and  austerities  and  penances  and 
sacrifices  as  of  no  avail  in  securing  the  welfare  and 
peace  of  the  soul  or  the  favor  of  deity.  In  all  this 
he  showed  an  enlightened  mind,  governed  by  wisdom 
and  truth,  and  even  a  bold  and  original  genius,  —  like 
Abraham  when  he  disowned  the  gods  of  his  fathers. 
Having  thus  himself  gained  the  security  of  the  heights, 
Buddha  longed  to  help  others  up,  and  turned  his  at- 
tention to  the  moral  instruction  of  the  people  of  India. 
He  was  emphatically  a  missionary  of  ethics,  an  apos- 
tle of  righteousness,  a  reformer  of  abuses,  as  well  as 
a  tender  and  compassionate  man,  moved  to  tears  in 
view  of  human  sorrows  and  sufferings.  He  gave  up 
metaphysical  speculations  for  practical  philanthropy. 
He  wandered  from  city  to  city  and  village  to  village 
to  relieve  misery  and  teach  duties  rather  than  theologi- 
cal philosophies.  He  did  not  know  that  God  is  love, 
but  he  did  know  that  peace  and  rest  are  the  result  of 
virtuous  thoughts  and  acts. 

"  Let  us  then,"  said  he,  "  live  happily,  not  hating 
those  who  hate  us ;  free  from  greed  among  the  greedy. 
.  .  .  Proclaim  mercy  freely  to  all  men ;  it  is  as  large 
as  the  spaces  of  heaven.  .  .  .  Whoever  loves  will  feel 
the  longing  to  save  not  himself  alone,  but  all  others." 
He  compares  himself  to  a  father  who  rescues  his  chil- 
dren from  a  burning  house,  to  a  physician  who  cures 
the  blind.      He  teaches  the  equality  of  the  sexes  as 


98  RELIGIONS  OF  /NDIA. 

well  as  the  injustice  of  castes.  He  enjoins  kindness  to 
servants  and  emancipation  of  slaves.  "  As  a  mother, 
as  long  as  she  lives,  watches  over  her  child,  so  among 
all  beings,"  said  Gautama,  "  let  boundless  good-will  pre- 
vail. .  .  .  Overcome  evil  with  good,  the  avaricious  with 
generosity,  the  false  with  truth.  .  .  .  Never  forget  thy 
own  duty  for  the  sake  of  another's.  ...  If  a  man  speaks 
or  acts  with  evil  thoughts  pain  follows,  as  the  wheel 
the  foot  of  him  who  draws  the  carriage.  ...  He  who 
lives  seeking  pleasure,  and  uncontrolled,  the  tempter 
will  overcome.  .  .  .  The  true  sage  dwells  on  earth,  as 
the  bee  gathers  sweetness  with  his  mouth  and  wings. 
.  .  .  One  may  conquer  a  thousand  men  in  battle,  but 
he  who  conquers  himself  alone  is  the  greatest  victor. 
.  .  .  Let  no  man  think  lightly  of  sin,  saying  in  his 
heart,  'It  cannot  overtake  me.'  .  .  .  Let  a  man  make 
himself  what  he  preaches  to  others.  .  .  .  He  who  holds 
back  rising  anger  as  one  might  a  rolling  chariot,  him, 
indeed,  I  call  a  driver ;  others  may  hold  the  reins.  .  .  . 
A  man  who  foolishly  does  me  wrong,  I  will  return 
to  him  the  protection  of  my  ungrudging  love ;  the 
more  evil  comes  from  him,  the  more  good  shall  go 
from  me." 

These  are  some  of  the  sayings  of  the  Indian  re- 
former, which  I  quote  from  extracts  of  his  writings 
as  translated  by  Sanskrit  scholars.  Some  of  these 
sayings  rise  to  a  height  of  moral  beauty  surpassed  only 


BRAIIMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM,  99 

by  the  precepts  of  the  great  Teacher,  whom  many  are 
too  fond  of  likening  to  Buddha  himself.  The  religion 
of  Buddha  is  founded  on  a  correct  and  virtuous  life, 
as  the  only  way  to  avoid  sorrow  and  reach  Nirvana. 
Its  essence,  theologically,  is  "  Quietism,"  without  firm 
belief  in  anything  reached  by  metaphysic  speculation ; 
yet  morally  and  practically  it  inculcates  ennobling, 
active  duties. 

Among  the  rules  that  Buddha  laid  down  for  his 
disciples  were  —  to  keep  the  body  pure ;  not  to  enter 
upon  affairs  of  trade ;  to  have  no  lands  and  cattle,  or 
houses,  or  money ;  to  abhor  all  hypocrisy  and  dissimu- 
lation; to  be  kind  to  everything  that  lives;  never  to 
take  the  life  of  any  living  being;  to  control  the  pas- 
sions ;  to  eat  food  only  to  satisfy  hunger ;  not  to  feel 
resentment  from  injuries;  to  be  patient  and  forgiving; 
to  avoid  covetousness,  and  never  to  tire  of  self-reflec- 
tion. His  fundamental  principles  are  purity  of  mind, 
chastity  of  life,  truthfulness,  temperance,  abstention 
from  the  wanton  destruction  of  animal  life,  from  vain 
pleasures,  from  envy,  hatred,  and  malice.  He  does  not 
enjoin  sacrifices,  for  he  knows  no  god  to  whom  they 
can  be  offered ;  but  "  he  proclaimed  the  brotherhood 
of  man,  if  he  did  not  reveal  the  fatherhood  of  God." 
He  insisted  on  the  natural  equality  of  all  men, — thus 
giving  to  caste  a  mortal  wound,  which  offended  the 
Brahmans,  and   finally   led    to   the   expulsion    of  liia 


100  RELIGIONS   OF  INDIA. 

followers  from  India.  He  protested  against  all  abso- 
lute authority,  even  that  of  the  Vedas.  Nor  did  he 
claim,  any  more  than  Confucius,  originality  of  doc- 
trines, only  the  revival  of  forgotten  or  neglected  truths. 
He  taught  that  Nirvana  was  not  attained  by  Brahman- 
ical  rites,  but  by  individual  virtues ;  and  that  punish- 
ment is  the  inevitable  result  of  evil  deeds  by  the 
inexorable  law  of  cause  and  effect 

Buddhism  is  essentially  rationalistic  and  ethical, 
while  Brahmanism  is  a  pantheistic  tendency  to  poly- 
theism, and  ritualistic  even  to  the  most  offensive  sacer- 
dotalism. The  Brahman  reminds  me  of  a  Dunstan,  — 
the  Buddhist  of  a  Benedict;  the  former  of  the  gloomy, 
spiritual  despotism  of  the  Middle  Ages,  —  the  latter  of 
self-denying  monasticism  in  its  best  ages.  The  Brah- 
man is  like  Thomas  Aquinas  with  his  dogmas  and  met- 
aphysics ;  the  Buddhist  is  more  like  a  mediaeval  free- 
thinker, stigmatized  as  an  atheist.  The  Brahman  was 
so  absorbed  with  his  theological  speculation  that  he 
took  no  account  of  the  sufferings  of  humanity;  the 
Buddhist  was  so  absorbed  with  the  miseries  of  man 
that  the  greatest  blessing  seemed  to  be  entire  and 
endless  rest,  the  cessation  of  existence  itself, — since 
existence  brought  desire,  desire  sin,  and  sin  misery. 
As  a  religion  Buddhism  is  an  absurdity ;  in  fact,  it  is 
no  religion  at  all,  only  a  system  of  moral  philosophy. 
Its  v/eak  points,  practically,  are  the  abuse  of  philan- 


BRAHMANISM  AND  BUDDHISM.  101 

thropy,  its  system  of  organized  idleness  and  mendi- 
cancy, the  indifference  to  thrift  and  industry,  the 
multiplication  of  lazy  fraternities  and  useless  retreats, 
reminding  us  of  monastic  institutions  in  the  days  of 
Chaucer  and  Luther.  The  Buddhist  priest  is  a  mendi- 
cant and  a  pauper,  clothed  in  rags,  begging  his  living 
from  door  to  door,  in  which  he  sees  no  disgrace  and 
no  impropriety.  Buddhism  failed  to  ennoble  the  daily 
occupations  of  life,  and  produced  drones  and  idlers  and 
religious  vagabonds.  In  its  corruption  it  lent  itself 
to  idolatry,  for  the  Buddhist  temples  are  filled  with 
hideous  images  of  all  sorts  of  repulsive  deities,  al- 
though Buddha  himself  did  not  hold  to  idol  worship 
any  more  than  to  the  belief  in  a  personal  God. 

"Buddhism,"  says  the  author  of  its  accepted  cate- 
chism, "teaches  goodness  without  a  God,  existence 
without  a  soul,  immortality  without  life,  happiness 
without  a  heaven,  salvation  without  a  saviour,  redemp- 
tion without  a  redeemer,  and  worship  without  rites." 
The  failure  of  Buddhism,  both  as  a  philosophy  and 
a  religion,  is  a  confirmation  of  the  great  historical  fact, 
that  in  the  ancient  Pagan  world  no  efforts  of  reason 
enabled  man  unaided  to  arrive  at  a  true  —  that  is,  a 
helpful  and  practically  elevating  —  knowledge  of  deity. 
Even  Buddha,  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  excellent  of 
all  the  sages  who  have  enlightened  the  world,  despaired 
of  solving  the  great  mysteries  of  existence,  and  turned 


102  RELIGIONS  OP  INDIA. 

his  attention  to  those  practical  duties  of  life  which 
seemed  to  promise  a  way  of  escaping  its  miseries. 
He  appealed  to  human  consciousness ;  but  lacking  the 
inspiration  and  aid  which  come  from  a  sense  of 
personal  divine  influence,  Buddhism  has  failed,  on 
the  large  scale,  to  raise  its  votaries  to  higher  planes 
of  ethical  accomplishment.  And  hence  the  necessity 
of  that  new  revelation  which  Jesus  declared  amid  the 
moral  ruins  of  a  crumbling  world,  by  which  alone 
can  the  debasing  superstitions  of  India  and  the  god- 
less materialism  of  China  be  replaced  with  a  vital  spir- 
ituality, —  even  as  the  elaborate  mythology  of  Greece 
and  Eome  gave  way  before  the  fervent  earnestness 
of  Christian  apostles  and  martyrs. 

It  does  not  belong  to  my  subject  to  present  the 
condition  of  Buddhism  as  it  exists  to-day  in  Thibet, 
in  Siam,  in  China,  in  Japan,  in  Burmah,  in  Ceylon, 
and  in  various  other  Eastern  countries.  It  spread  by 
reason  of  its  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  miserable, 
by  virtue  of  its  being  a  great  system  of  philanthropy 
and  morals  which  appealed  to  the  consciousness  of 
the  lower  classes.  Though  a  proselyting  religion  it 
was  never  a  persecuting  one,  and  is  still  distinguished, 
in  all  its  corruption,  for  its  toleration. 


AUTHORITIES. 

The  chief  authorities  that  I  would  recommend  for  this  chapter 
are  Max  Mailer's  History  of  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature ;  Rev. 
S.  Real's  Ruddbism  in  China ;  Ruddhism,  by  T.  W.  Rbys-Davids  ; 
Monier  Williams's  Sakoontala;  I.  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts;  Rur- 
noufs  Essai  sur  la  Veda  ;  Sir  William  Jones's  Works  ;  Colebrook's 
Miscellaneous  Essays ;  Joseph  Muller's  Religious  Aspects  of  Hindu 
Philosophy ;  Manual  of  Ruddhism,  by  R.  Spence  Hardy ;  Dr.  H. 
Clay  Trumbull's  The  Rlood  Covenant;  Orthodox  Ruddhist  Cate- 
chism, by  H.  S.  Olcott,  edited  by  Prof.  Elliott  C.  Coues.  I  have 
derived  some  instruction  from  Samuel  Johnson's  bulky  and  diffuse 
books,  hut  more  from  James  Preeman  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Religions, 
and  Rawlinson's  Religions  o''  the  Ancient  World. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND 
ROMANS. 

CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY. 


RELIGION  OF   THE   GREEKS   AND    ROMANS. 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY. 

RELIGION  among  the  lively  and  imaginative 
Greeks  took  a  different  form  from  that  of  the 
Aryan  race  in  India  or  Persia.  However  the  ideas 
of  their  divinities  originated  in  their  relations  to  the 
thought  and  life  of  the  people,  their  gods  were 
neither  abstractions  nor  symbols.  They  were  simply 
men  and  women,  immortal,  yet  having  a  beginning, 
with  passions  and  appetites  like  ordinary  mortals. 
They  love,  they  hate,  they  eat,  they  drink,  they  have 
adventures  and  misfortunes  like  men,  —  only  differing 
from  men  in  the  superiority  of  their  gifts,  in  their 
miraculous  endowments,  in  their  stupendous  feats,  in 
their  more  than  gigantic  size,  in  their  supernal  beauty, 
in  their  intensified  pleasures.  It  was  not  their  aim 
"to  raise  mortals  to  the  skies,"  but  to  enjoy  them- 
selves in  feasting  and  love-making;  not  even  to 
govern  the  world,  but  to  protect  their  particular 
worshippers,  —  taking   part  and    interest    in   human 


108    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

quarrels,  without  reference  to  justice  or  right,  and 
without  communicating  any  great  truths  for  the  guid- 
ance of  mankind. 

The  religion  of  Greece  consisted  of  a  series  of 
myths,  —  creations  for  the  most  part  of  the  poets,  — 
and  therefore  properly  called  a  mythology.  Yet  in 
some  respects  the  gods  of  Greece  resembled  those  of 
Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  being  the  powers  of  X  iture, 
and  named  after  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets.  Their 
priests  did  not  form  a  sacerdotal  caste,  as  in  India  and 
Egypt;  they  were  more  like  officers  of  the  state,  to 
perform  certain  functions  or  duties  pertaining  to  rites, 
ceremonies,  and  sacrifices.  They  taught  no  moral 
or  spiritual  truths  to  the  people,  nor  were  they  held  in 
extraordinary  reverence.  They  were  not  ascetics  or 
enthusiasts ;  among  them  were  no  great  reformers  or 
prophets,  as  among  the  sacerdotal  class  of  the  Jews 
or  the  Hindus.  They  had  even  no  sacred  books,  and 
claimed  no  esoteric  knowledge.  Nor  was  their  office 
hereditary.  They  were  appointed  by  the  rulers  of  the 
state,  or  elected  by  the  people  themselves ;  they  im- 
posed no  restraints  on  the  conscience,  and  apparently 
cared  little  for  morals,  leaving  the  people  to  an  un- 
bounded freedom  to  act  and  think  for  themselves,  so 
far  as  they  did  not  interfere  with  prescribed  usages 
and  laws.  The  real  objects  of  Greek  worship  were 
beauty,  grace,  and  heroic  strength.    The  people  wor- 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  109 

shipped  no  supreme  creator,  no  providential  governor, 
no  ultimate  judge  of  human  actions.  They  had  no 
aspirations  for  heaven  and  no  fear  of  hell.  They  did 
not  feel  accountable  for  their  deeds  or  thoughts  or 
words  to  an  irresistible  Power  working  for  righteous- 
ness or  truth.  They  had  no  religious  sense,  apart 
from  wonder  or  admiration  of  the  glories  of  Nature, 
or  the  good  or  evil  which  might  result  from  the 
favor  or  hatred  of  the  divinities  they  accepted. 

These  divinities,  moreover,  were  not  manifestations 
of  supreme  power  and  intelligence,  but  were  creations 
of  the  fancy,  as  they  came  from  popular  legends,  or  the 
brains  of  poets,  or  the  hands  of  artists,  or  the  specu- 
lations of  philosophers.  And  as  everything  in  Greece 
was  beautiful  and  radiant,  —  the  sea,  the  sky,  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  valleys,  —  so  was  religion  cheerful,  seen 
in  all  the  festivals  which  took  the  place  of  the  Sab- 
baths and  holy-days  of  more  spiritually  minded  peo- 
ples. The  worshippers  of  the  gods  danced  and  played 
and  sported  to  the  sounds  of  musical  instruments,  and 
revelled  in  joyous  libations,  in  feasts  and  imposing 
processions,  —  in  whatever  would  amuse  the  mind  or 
intoxicate  the  senses.  The  gods  were  rather  unseen 
companions  in  pleasures,  in  sports,  in  athletic  contests 
and  warlike  enterprises,  than  beings  to  be  adored  for 
moral  excellence  or  supernal  knowledge.  "Heaven 
was  so  near  at  hand  that  their  own  heroes  climbed 


110    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

to  it  and  became  demigods."  Every  grove,  every 
fountain,  every  river,  every  beautiful  spot,  had  its 
presiding  deity;  while  every  wonder  of  Nature,  —  the 
sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  tempest,  the  thunder, 
the  lightning,  —  was  impersonated  as  an  awful  power 
for  good  or  evil.  To  them  temples  were  erected, 
within  which  were  their  shrines  and  images  in  human 
shape,  glistening  with  gold  and  gems,  and  wrought 
in  every  form  of  grace  or  strength  or  beauty,  and  by 
artists  of  marvellous  excellence. 

This  polytheism  of  Greece  was  exceedingly  compli- 
cated, but  was  not  so  degrading  as  that  of  Egypt, 
since  the  gods  were  not  represented  by  the  forms  of 
hideous  animals,  and  the  worship  of  them  was  not 
attended  by  revolting  ceremonies ;  and  yet  it  was 
divested  of  all  spiritual  aspirations,  and  had  but  little 
eflfect  on  personal  struggles  for  truth  or  holiness.  It 
was  human  and  worldly,  not  lofty  nor  even  reverential, 
except  among  the  few  who  had  deep  religious  wants. 
One  of  its  characteristic  features  was  the  acknowl- 
edged impotence  of  the  gods  to  secure  future  happiness. 
In  fact,  the  future  was  generally  ignored,  and  even  im- 
mortality was  but  a  dream  of  philosophers.  Men  lived 
not  in  view  of  future  rewards  and  punishments,  or 
future  existence  at  all,  but  for  the  enjoyment  of  the 
present;  and  the  gods  themselves  set  the  example  of 
an  immoral  life.     Even  Zeus,  "  the  Father  of  gods  and 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  Ill 

men,"  to  whom  absolute  supremacy  was  ascribed,  the 
work  of  creation,  and  all  majesty  and  serenity,  took 
but  little  interest  in  human  affairs,  and  lived  on 
Olympian  heights  like  a  sovereign  surrounded  with 
the  instruments  of  his  will,  freely  indulging  in  those 
pleasures  which  all  lofty  moral  codes  have  forbidden, 
and  taking  part  in  the  quarrels,  jealousies,  and  en- 
mities of  his  divine  associates. 

Greek  mythology  had  its  source  in  the  legends  of 
a  remote  antiquity,  —  probably  among  the  Pelasgians, 
the  early  inhabitants  of  Greece,  which  they  brought 
with  them  in  their  migration  from  their  original  settle- 
ment, or  perhaps  from  Egypt  and  Phoenicia.  Herod- 
otus—  and  he  is  not  often  wrong  —  ascribes  a  great 
part  of  the  mythology  which  the  Greek  poets  elabo- 
rated to  a  Phoenician  or  Egyptian  source.  The  legends 
have  also  some  similarity  to  the  poetic  creations  of 
the  ancient  Persians,  who  delighted  in  fairies  and  genii 
and  extravagant  exploits,  like  the  labors  of  Hercules 
The  faults  and  foibles  of  deified  mortals  were  trans -^ 
mitted  to  posterity  and  incorporated  with  the  attri^ 
butes  of  the  supreme  divinity,  and  hence  the  mixture 
of  the  mighty  and  the  mean  which  marks  the  charac- 
ters of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  The  Greeks  adopted 
Oriental  fables,  and  accommodated  them  to  those 
heroes  who  figured  in  their  own  country  in  the  earli- 
est  times.      "  The    labors   of    Hercules   originated    in 


112    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

Egypt,  and  relate  to  the  annual  progress  of  the  sun 
in  the  zodiac.  The  rape  of  Proserpine,  the  wanderings 
of  Ceres,  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  and  the  orgies  of 
Bacchus  were  aU  imported  from  Egypt  or  Phoenicia, 
while  the  wars  between  the  gods  and  the  giants  were 
celebrated  in  the  romantic  annals  of  Persia.  The 
oracle  of  Dodona  was  copied  from  that  of  Ammon 
in  Thebes,  and  the  oracle  of  Apollo  at  Delphos  has 
a  similar  source." 

Behind  the  Oriental  legends  which  form  the  basis  of 
Grecian  mythology  there  was,  in  all  probability,  in 
those  ancient  times  before  the  Pelasgians  were  known 
as  lonians  and  the  Hellenes  as  Dorians,  a  mystical  and 
indefinite  idea  of  supreme  power,  —  as  among  the  Per- 
sians, the  Hindus,  and  the  esoteric  priests  of  Egypt. 
In  all  the  ancient  religions  the  farther  back  we  go 
the  purer  and  loftier  do  we  find  the  popular  religion. 
Belief  in  supreme  deity  imderlies  all  the  Eastern 
theogonies,  which  belief,  however,  was  soon  perverted 
or  lost  sight  of.  There  is  great  difference  of  opinion 
among  philosophers  as  to  the  origin  of  myths, — 
whether  they  began  in  fable  and  came  to  be  regarded 
as  history,  or  began  as  human  history  and  were 
poetized  into  fable.  My  belief  is  that  in  the  ear- 
liest ages  of  the  world  there  were  no  mythologies. 
Fables  were  the  creations  of  those  who  sought  to 
amuse  or  control  the  people,  who  have  ever  delighted 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  113 

in  the  marvellous.  As  the  magnificent,  the  vast,  the 
sublime,  which  V7as  seen  in  Nature,  impressed  itself 
on  the  imagination  of  the  Orientals  and  ended  in 
legends,  so  did  allegory  in  process  of  time  multiply 
fictions  and  fables  to  an  indefinite  extent;  and  what 
were  symbols  among  Eastern  nations  became  imperso- 
nations in  the  poetry  of  Greece.  Grecian  mythology 
was  a  vast  system  of  impersonated  forces,  beginning 
with  the  legends  of  heroes  and  ending  with  the  per- 
sonification of  the  faculties  of  the  mind  and  the  mani- 
festations of  Nature,  in  deities  who  presided  over  fes- 
tivals, cities,  groves,  and  mountains,  with  all  the 
infirmities  of  human  nature,  and  without  calling  out 
exalted  sentiments  of  love  or  reverence.  They  are 
all  creations  of  the  imagination,  invested  with  human 
traits  and  adapted  to  the  genius  of  the  people,  who 
were  far  from  being  religious  in  the  sense  that  the 
Hindus  and  Egyptians  were.  It  was  the  natural  and 
not  the  supernatural  that  filled  their  souls.  It  was  art 
they  worshipped,  and  not  the  God  who  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  and  who  exacts  of  his  crea- 
tures obedience  and  faith. 

In  regard  to  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  Grecian 
Pantheon,  we  observe  that  most  of  them  were  immoral ; 
at  least  they  had  the  usual  infirmities  of  men.  They 
are  thus  represented  by  the  poets,  probably  to  please 
the  people,  who  like   all   other  peoples  had  to  make 


114    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

their  own  conceptions  of  God ;  for  even  a  miraculous 
revelation  of  deity  must  be  interpreted  by  those  who 
receive  it,  according  to  their  own  understanding  of  the 
qualities  revealed.  The  ancient  Eomans,  themselves 
stem,  earnest,  practical,  had  an  almost  Oriental  rev- 
erence for  their  gods,  so  that  their  Jupiter  (Father  of 
Heaven)  was  a  majestic,  powerful,  all-seeing,  severely 
just  national  deity,  regarded  by  them  much  as  the 
Jehovah  if  the  Hebrews  was  by  that  nation.  When 
in  later  times  the  conquest  of  Eastern  countries  and 
of  Macedon  and  Greece  brought  in  luxury,  works  of 
art,  foreign  literature,  and  all  the  delightful  but  ener- 
vating influences  of  sestheticism,  the  Romans  became 
corrupted,  and  gradually  began  to  identify  their  own 
more  noble  deities  with  the  beautiful  but  unprincipled, 
self-indulgent,  and  tricky  set  of  gods  and  goddesses  of 
the  Greek  mythology. 

The  Greek  Zeus,  with  whom  were  associated  majesty 
and  dominion,  and  who  reigned  supreme  in  the  celestial 
hierarchy,  —  who  as  the  chief  god  of  the  skies,  the 
god  of  storms,  ruler  of  the  atmosphere,  was  the  favor- 
ite deity  of  the  Aryan  race,  the  Indra  of  the  Hindus, 
the  Jupiter  of  the  Eomans,  —  was  in  his  Grecian  pre- 
sentment a  rebellious  son,  a  faithless  husband,  and 
sometimes  an  unkind  father.  His  character  was  a 
combination  of  weakness  and  strength,  —  anything 
but  a  pattern   to  be   imitated,  or  even  to  be  rever- 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  115 

enced.  He  was  the  impersonation  of  power  and  dig- 
nity, represented  by  the  poets  as  having  such  immense 
strength  that  if  he  had  hold  of  one  end  of  a  chain,  and 
all  the  gods  held  the  other,  with  the  earth  fastened  to 
it,  he  would  be  able  to  move  them  all. 

Poseidon  (Koman  Neptune),  the  brother  of  Zeus, 
was  represented  as  the  god  of  the  ocean,  and  was 
worshipped  chiefly  in  maritime  States.  His  morality 
was  no  higher  than  that  of  Zeus ;  moreover,  he  was 
rough,  boisterous,  and  vindictive.  He  was  hostile  to 
Troy,  and  yet  persecuted  Ulysses. 

Apollo,  the  next  great  personage  of  the  Olympian 
divinities,  was  more  respectable  morally  than  his 
father.  He  was  the  sun -god  of  the  Greeks,  and  was 
the  embodiment  of  divine  prescience,  of  healing  skill, 
of  musical  and  poetical  productiveness,  and  hence  the 
favorite  of  the  poets.  He  had  a  form  of  ideal  beauty, 
grace,  and  vigor,  inspired  by  unerring  wisdom  and 
insight  into  futurity.  He  was  obedient  to  the  will 
of  Zeus,  to  whom  he  was  not  much  inferior  in  power. 
Temples  were  erected  to  this  favorite  deity  in  every 
part  of  Greece,  and  he  was  supposed  to  deliver  oracular 
responses  in  several  cities,  especially  at  Delphos. 

Hephaestus  (Eoman  Vulcan),  the  god  of  fire,  was  a 
sort  of  jester  at  the  Olympian  court,  and  provoked 
perpetual  laughter  from  his  awkwardness  and  lame- 
ness.    He  forged  the  thunderbolts  for  Zeus,  and  was 


116    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

the  armorer  of  heaven.  It  accorded  with  the  grim 
humor  of  the  poets  to  make  this  clumsy  blacksmith 
the  husband  of  Aphrodite,  the  queen  of  beauty  and  of 
love. 

Ares  (Eoman  Mars),  the  god  of  war,  was  represented 
as  cruel,  lawless,  and  greedy  of  blood,  and  as  occupying 
a  subordinate  position,  receiving  orders  from  Apollo 
and  Athene. 

Hermes  (Roman  Mercury)  was  the  impersonation  of 
commercial  dealings,  and  of  course  was  full  of  tricks 
and  thievery,  —  the  Olympian  man  of  business,  indus- 
trious, inventive,  untruthful,  and  dishonest.  He  was 
also  the  god  of  eloquence. 

Besides  these  six  great  male  divinities  there  were  six 
goddesses,  the  most  important  of  whom  was  Hera 
(Roman  Juno),  wife  of  Zeus,  and  hence  the  Queen  of 
Heaven.  She  exercised  her  husband's  prerogatives,  and 
thundered  and  shook  Olympus ;  but  she  was  proud,  vin- 
dictive, jealous,  unscrupulous,  and  cruel, — a  poor  model 
for  women  to  imitate.  The  Greek  poets,  however,  had 
a  poor  opinion  of  the  female  sex,  and  hence  represent 
this  deity  without  those  elements  of  character  which 
we  most  admire  in  woman,  —  gentleness,  softness,  ten- 
derness, and  patience.  She  scolded  her  august  husband 
so  perpetually  that  he  gave  way  to  complaints  before 
the  assembled  deities,  and  that  too  with  a  bitterness 
hardly  to  be  reconciled  with  our  notions  of  dignity. 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  117 

The  Eoman  Juno,  before  the  identification  of  the  two 
goddesses,  was  a  nobler  character,  being  the  queen  of 
heaven,  the  protectress  of  virgins  and  of  matrons,  and 
was  also  the  celestial  housewife  of  the  nation,  watch- 
ing over  its  revenues  and  its  expenses.  She  was  the 
especial  goddess  of  chastity,  and  loose  women  were 
forbidden  to  touch  her  altars. 

Athene  (Eoman  Minerva)  however,  the  goddess  of 
wisdom,  had  a  character  without  a  flaw,  and  ranked 
with  Apollo  in  wisdom.  She  even  expostulated  with 
Zeus  himself  when  he  was  wrong.  But  on  the  other 
hand  she  had  few  attractive  feminine  qualities,  and  no 
amiable  weaknesses, 

Artemis  (Eoman  Diana)  was  "  a  shadowy  divinity, 
a  pale  reflection  of  her  brother  Apollo."  She  presided 
over  the  pleasures  of  the  chase,  in  which  the  Greeks 
delighted,  —  a  masculine  female  who  took  but  little 
interest  in  anything  intellectual. 

Aphrodite  (Eoman  Venus)  was  the  impersonation 
of  all  that  was  weak  and  erring  in  the  nature  of 
woman,  —  the  goddess  of  sensual  desire,  of  mere  phy- 
sical beauty,  silly,  childish,  and  vain,  utterly  odious 
in  a  moral  point  of  view,  and  mentally  contemptible. 
This  goddess  was  represented  as  exerting  a  great  in- 
fluence even  when  despised,  fascinating  yet  revolting, 
admired  and  yet  corrupting.  She  was  not  of  much 
importance  among  the  Eomans,  —  who  were  far  from 


118    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

being  sentimental  or  passionate,  —  until  the  growth  of 
the  legend  of  their  Trojan  origin.  Then,  as  mother 
of  ^neas,  their  progenitor,  she  took  a  high  rank,  and 
the  Greek  poets  furnished  her  character. 

Hestia  (Roman  Vesta)  presided  over  the  private 
hearths  and  homesteads  of  the  Greeks,  and  imparted 
to  them  a  sacred  character.  Her  personality  was 
vague,  but  she  represented  the  purity  which  among 
both  Greeks  and  Romans  is  attached  to  home  and 
domestic  life. 

Demeter  (Roman  Ceres)  represented  Mother  Earth, 
and  thus  was  closely  associated  with  agriculture  and 
all  operations  of  tillage  and  bread-making.  As  agri- 
culture is  the  primitive  and  most  important  of  all 
human  vocations,  this  deity  presided  over  civilization 
and  law-giving,  and  occupied  an  important  position  in 
the  Eleusinian  mysteries. 

These  were  the  twelve  Olympian  divinities,  or 
greater  gods ;  but  they  represent  only  a  small  part 
of  the  Grecian  Pantheon.  There  was  Dionysus  (Ro- 
man Bacchus),  the  god  of  drunkenness.  This  deity 
presided  over  vineyards,  and  his  worship  was  attended 
with  disgraceful  orgies,  —  with  wild  dances,  noisy 
revels,  exciting  music,  and  frenzied  demonstrations. 

Leto  (Roman  Latona),  another  wife  of  Zeus,  and 
mother  of  Apollo  and  Diana,  was  a  very  different 
personage  from  Hera,  being  the  impersonation  of  all 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  119 

those  womanly  qualities  which  are  valued  in  woman, 
—  silent,  unobtrusive,  condescending,  chaste,  kindly, 
ready  to  help  and  tend,  and  subordinating  herself  to 
her  children. 

Persephone  (Koman  Proserpina)  was  the  queen  of 
the  dead,  ruling  the  infernal  realm  even  more  dis- 
tinctly than  her  husband  Pluto,  severely  pure  as  she 
was  awful  and  terrible ;  but  there  were  no  temples 
erected  to  her,  as  the  Greeks  did  not  trouble  them- 
selves much  about  the  future  state. 

The  minor  deities  of  the  Greeks  were  innumerable, 
and  were  identified  with  every  separate  thing  which 
occupied  their  thoughts,  —  with  mountains,  rivers, 
capes,  towns,  fountains,  rocks ;  with  domestic  animals, 
with  monsters  of  the  deep,  with  demons  and  departed 
heroes,  with  water-nymphs  and  wood-nymphs,  with 
the  qualities  of  mind  and  attributes  of  the  body ;  with 
sleep  and  death,  old  age  and  pain,  strife  and  victory; 
with  hunger,  grief,  ridicule,  wisdom,  deceit,  grace ;  with 
night  and  day,  the  hours,  the  thunder  the  rainbow,  — ■ 
in  short,  all  the  wonders  of  Nature,  all  the  affections 
of  the  soul,  and  all  the  qualities  of  the  mind ;  every- 
thing they  saw,  everything  they  talked  about,  every- 
thing they  felt.  All  these  wonders  and  sentiments 
they  impersonated ;  and  these  impersonations  were 
supposed  to  preside  over  the  things  they  represented, 
and  to  a  certain  extent  were  worshipped.     If  a  man 


120    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

wished  the  winds  to  be  propitious,  he  prayed  to  Zeus ; 
if  he  wished  to  be  prospered  in  his  bargains,  he  in- 
voked Hermes;  if  he  wished  to  be  successful  in  war, 
he  prayed  to  Ares. 

He  never  prayed  to  a  supreme  and  eternal  deity,  but 
to  some  special  manifestation  of  deity,  fancied  or  real ; 
and  hence  his  religion  was  essentially  paiitheistic, 
though  outwardly  polytheistic.  The  divinities  whom 
he  invoked  he  celebrated  with  rites  corresponding  with 
those  traits  which  they  represented.  Thus,  Aphrodite 
was  celebrated  with  lascivious  dances,  and  Dionysus 
with  drunken  revels.  Each  deity  represented  the  Gre- 
cian ideal,  —  of  majesty  or  grace  or  beauty  or  strength 
or  virtue  or  wisdom  or  madness  or  folly.  The  char- 
acter of  Hera  was  what  the  poets  supposed  should  be 
the  attributes  of  the  Queen  of  heaven ;  that  of  Leto, 
what  should  distinguish  a  disinterested  housewife; 
that  of  Hestia,  what  should  mark  the  guardian  of  the 
fireside;  that  of  Demeter,  what  should  show  supreme 
benevolence  and  thrift;  that  of  Athene,  what  would 
naturally  be  associated  with  wisdom,  and  that  of 
Aphrodite,  what  would  be  expected  from  a  sensual 
beauty.  In  the  main,  Zeus  was  serene,  majestic,  and 
benignant,  as  became  the  king  of  the  gods,  although 
he  was  occasionally  faithless  to  his  wife ;  Poseidon  was 
boisterous,  as  became  the  monarch  of  the  seas ;  Apollo 
was  a  devoted  son  and  a  bright  companion,  which  one 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  121 

would  expect  in  a  gifted  poet  and  wise  prophet,  beau- 
tiful and  graceful  as  a  sun-god  should  be  ;  Hephaestus, 
the  god  of  fire  and  smiths,  showed  naturally  the  awk- 
wardness to  which  manual  labor  leads  ;  Ares  was  cruel 
and  bloodthirsty,  as  the  god  of  war  should  be ;  Hermes, 
as  the  god  of  trade  and  business,  would  of  course  be 
sharp  and  tricky ;  and  Dionysus,  the  father  of  the 
vine,  would  naturally  become  noisy  and  rollicking  in 
his  intoxication. 

Thus,  whatever  defects  are  associated  with  the  prin- 
cipal deities,  these  are  all  natural  and  consistent  with 
the  characters  they  represent,  or  the  duties  and  business 
in  which  they  engage.  Drunkenness  is  not  associated 
with  Zeus,  or  unchastity  with  Hera  or  Athene.  The 
poets  make  each  deity  consistent  with  himself,  and  in 
harmony  with  the  interests  he  represents.  Hence  the 
mythology  of  the  poets  is  elaborate  and  interesting. 
Who  has  not  devoured  the  classical  dictionary  before 
he  has  learned  to  scan  the  lines  of  Homer  or  of  Virgil  ? 
As  varied  and  romantic  as  the  "Arabian  Nights,"  it 
shines  in  the  beauty  of  nature.  In  the  Grecian  crea- 
tions of  gods  and  goddesses  there  is  no  insult  to  the 
understanding,  because  these  creations  are  in  harmony 
with  Nature,  are  consistent  with  humanity.  There  is 
no  hatred  and  no  love,  no  jealousy  and  no  fear,  which 
has  not  a  natural  cause.  The  poets  proved  themselves 
to  be  great  artists  in  the  very  characters  they  gave  to 


122    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

their  divinities.  They  did  not  aim  to  excite  rever- 
ence or  stimulate  to  duty  or  point  out  the  higher  life, 
but  to  amuse  a  worldly,  pleasure-seeking,  good-natured, 
joyous,  art-loving,  poetic  people,  who  lived  in  the 
present  and  for  themselves  alone.  , 

As  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments  sel- 
dom entered  into  the  minds  of  the  Greeks,  so  the  gods 
are  never  represented  as  conferring  future  salvation. 
The  welfare  of  the  soul  was  rarely  thought  of  where 
there  was  no  settled  belief  in  immortality.  The  gods 
themselves  were  fed  on  nectar  and  ambrosia,  that  they 
might  not  die  like  ordinary  mortals.  They  might  pro- 
long their  own  existence  indefinitely,  but  they  were 
impotent  to  confer  eternal  life  upon  their  worship- 
pers ;  and  as  eternal  life  is  essential  to  perfect  happi- 
ness, they  could  not  confer  even  happiness  in  its 
highest  sense. 

On  this  fact  Saint  Augustine  erected  the  grand 
fabric  of  his  theological  system.  In  his  most  cele- 
brated work,  "  The  City  of  God,"  he  holds  up  to  deri- 
sion the  gods  of  antiquity,  and  with  blended  logic 
and  irony  makes  them  contemptible  as  objects  of 
worship,  since  they  were  impotent  to  save  the  souL 
In  his  view  the  grand  and  distinguishing  feature  of 
Christianity,  in  contrast  with  Paganism,  is  the  gift  of 
eternal  life  and  happiness.  It  is  not  the  morality 
which  Christ  and  his  Apostles  taught,  which  gave  to 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  123 

Christianity  its  immeasurable  superiority  over  all  other 
religious,  but  the  promise  of  a  future  felicity  in  heaven. 
And  it  was  this  promise  which  gave  such  comfort  to 
the  miserable  people  of  the  old  Pagan  world,  ground 
down  by  oppression,  injustice,  cruelty,  and  poverty. 
It  was  this  promise  which  filled  the  converts  to 
Christianity  with  joy,  enthusiasm,  and  hope,  —  yea, 
more  than  this,  even  boundless  love  that  salvation 
was  the  gift  of  God  through  the  self-sacrifice  of  Christ. 
Immortality  was  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel  alone, 
and  to  miserable  people  the  idea  of  eternal  bliss  after 
the  trials  of  mortal  life  were  passed  was  the  source 
of  immeasurable  joy.  No  sooner  was  this  sublime 
expectation  of  happiness  planted  firmly  in  the  minds 
of  pagans,  than  they  threw  their  idols  to  the  moles 
and  the  bats. 

But  even  in  regard  to  morality,  Augustine  showed 
that  the  gods  were  no  examples  -to  follow.  He  ridi- 
cules their  morals  and  their  offices  as  severely  as  he 
points  out  their  impotency  to  bestow  happiness.  He 
shows  the  absurdity  and  inconsistency  of  tolerating 
players  in  their  delineation  of  the  vices  and  follies 
of  deities  for  the  amusement  of  the  people  in  the 
theatre,  while  the  priests  performed  the  same  obsceni- 
ties as  religious  rites  in  the  temples  which  were  upheld 
by  the  State ;  so  that  philosophers  like  Varro  could 
pour  contempt  on  players  with  impunity,  while  he 

VOL.  I.  —  7 


124    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

dared  not  ridicule  priests  for  doing  in  the  temples  the 
same  things.  No  wonder  that  the  popular  religion  at 
last  was  held  in  contempt  by  philosophers,  since  it  was 
not  only  impotent  to  save,  but  did  not  stimulate  to 
ordinary  morality,  to  virtue,  or  to  lofty  sentiments. 
A  religion  which  was  held  sacred  in  one  place  and 
ridiculed  in  another,  before  the  eyes  of  the  same  people, 
could  not  in  the  end  but  yield  to  what  was  better. 

If  we  ascribe  to  the  poets  the  creation  of  the  elabor- 
ate mythology  of  the  Greeks,  —  that  is,  a  system  of 
gods  made  by  men,  rather  than  men  made  by  gods,  — 
whether  as  symbols  or  objects  of  worship,  whether  the 
religion  was  pantheistic  or  idolatrous,  we  find  that 
artists  even  surpassed  the  poets  in  their  conceptions 
of  divine  power,  goodness,  and  beauty,  and  thus  riveted 
the  chains  which  the  poets  forged. 

The  temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia  in  Elis,  where  the 
intellect  and  the  culture  of  Greece  assembled  every 
four  years  to  witness  the  games  instituted  in  honor  of 
the  Father  of  the  gods,  was  itself  calculated  to  impose 
on  the  senses  of  the  worshippers  by  its  grandeur  and 
beauty.  The  image  of  the  god  himself,  sixty  feet  high, 
made  of  ivory,  gold,  and  gems  by  the  greatest  of  all  the 
sculptors  of  antiquity,  must  have  impressed  spectators 
with  ideas  of  strength  and  majesty  even  more  than 
any  poetical  descriptions  could  do.  If  it  was  art  which 
the  Greeks  worshipped  rather  than  an  unseen  deity 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  125 

who  controlled  their  destinies,  and  to  whom  supreme 
homage  was  due,  how  nobly  did  the  image  before  them 
represent  the  highest  conceptions  of  the  attributes  to 
be  ascribed  to  the  King  of  Heaven  !  Seated  on  his 
throne,  with  the  emblems  of  sovereignty  in  his  hands 
and  attendant  deities  around  him,  his  head,  neck,  breast, 
and  arms  in  massive  proportions,  and  his  face  expres- 
sive of  majesty  and  sweetness,  power  in  repose,  be- 
nevolence blended  with  strength,  —  the  image  of  the 
Olympian  deity  conveyed  to  the  minds  of  his  wor- 
shippers everything  that  could  inspire  awe,  wonder, 
and  goodness,  as  well  as  power.  No  fear  was  blended 
with  admiration,  since  his  favor  could  be  won  by  the 
magnificent  rites  and  ceremonies  which  were  instituted 
in  his  honor. 

Clarke  alludes  to  the  sculptured  Apollo  Belvedere 
as  giving  a  still  more  elevated  idea  of  the  sun-god 
than  the  poets  themselves,  —  a  figure  expressive  of 
the  highest  thoughts  of  the  Hellenic  mind,  —  and 
quotes  Milman  in  support  of  his  admiration:  — 

"  All,  all  divine  !  no  struggling  muscle  glows, 
Through  heaving  vein  no  mantling  life-blood  flows ; 
But,  animate  with  deity  alone, 
In  deathless  glory  lives  the  breathing  stone." 

If  a  Christian  poet  can  see  divinity  in  the  chiselled 
stone,  why  should  we  wonder  at  the  worship  of  art 
by  the  pagan  Greeks  ?      The  same  could  be  said  of 


126    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

the  statues  of  Artemis,  of  Pallas-Athene,  of  Aphro- 
dite, and  other  "  divine "  productions  of  Grecian  ar- 
tists, since  they  represented  the  highest  ideal  the 
world  has  seen  of  beauty,  grace,  loveliness,  and  ma- 
jesty, which  the  Greeks  adored.  Hence,  though  the 
statues  of  the  gods  are  in  human  shape,  it  was  not 
men  that  the  Greeks  worshipped,  but  those  qualities 
of  mind  and  those  forms  of  beauty  to  which  the  cul- 
tivated intellect  instinctively  gave  the  highest  praise. 
No  one  can  object  to  this  boundless  admiration  which 
the  Greeks  had  for  art  in  its  highest  forms,  in  so  far 
as  that  admiration  became  worship.  It  was  the  di- 
vorce of  art  from  morals  which  called  out  the  indig- 
nation and  censure  of  the  Christian  fathers,  and  even 
undermined  the  religion  of  philosophers  so  far  as  it 
had  been  directed  to  the  worship  of  the  popular  deities, 
which  were  simply  creations  of  poets  and  artists. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  the  worship  of  the 
gods  could  have  been  kept  up  for  so  long  a  time,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  festivals.  This  wise  provision  for 
providing  interest  and  recreation  for  the  people  was 
also  availed  of  by  the  Mosaic  ritual  among  the  He- 
brews, and  has  been  a  part  of  most  well-organized 
religious  systems.  The  festivals  were  celebrated  in 
honor  not  merely  of  deities,  but  of  useful  inventions, 
of  the  seasons  of  the  year,  of  great  national  victories, 
—  all  which  were  religious  in   the  pagan  sense,  and 


CLASSIC  MYTBOLOGt.  l27 

constituted  the  highest  pleasures  of  Grecian  life.  They 
were  observed  with  great  pomp  and  splendor  in  the 
open  air  in  front  of  temples,  in  sacred  groves,  wherever 
the  people  could  conveniently  assemble  to  join  in 
jocund  dances,  in  athletic  sports,  and  whatever  could 
animate  the  soul  with  festivity  and  joy.  Hence  the 
religious  worship  of  the  Greeks  was  cheerful,  and 
adapted  itself  to  the  tastes  and  pleasures  of  the  peo- 
ple; it  was,  however,  essentially  worldly,  and  some- 
times degrading.  It  was  similar  in  its  effects  to  the 
rural  sports  of  the  yeomanry  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  to  the  theatrical  representations  sometimes  held 
in  mediaeval  churches,  —  certainly  to  the  processions 
and  pomps  which  the  Catholic  clergy  instituted  for 
the  amusement  of  the  people.  Hence  the  sneering 
but  acute  remark  of  Gibbon,  that  all  rehgions  were 
equally  true  to  the  people,  equally  false  to  philoso- 
phers, and  equally  useful  to  rulers.  The  State  en- 
couraged and  paid  for  sacrifices,  rites,  processions,  and 
scenic  dances  on  the  same  principle  that  they  gave 
corn  to  the  people  to  make  them  contented  in  their 
miseries,  and  severely  punished  those  who  ridiculed 
the  popular  religion  when  it  was  performed  in  tem- 
ples, even  though  it  winked  at  the  ridicule  of  the 
same  performances  in  the  theatres. 

Among  the  Greeks  there  were  no  sacred  books  like 
the  Hindu  Vedas  or  Hebrew  Scriptures,  in  which  the 


128    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

people  could  learn  duties  and  religious  truths.  The 
priests  taught  nothing ;  they  merely  officiated  at  rites 
and  ceremonies.  It  is  difficult  to  find  out  what  were 
the  means  and  forms  of  religious  instruction,  so  far  as 
pertained  to  the  heart  and  conscience.  Duties  were 
certainly  not  learned  from  the  ministers  of  religion. 
From  what  source  did  the  people  learn  the  necessity 
of  obedience  to  parents,  of  conjugal  fidelity,  of  truth- 
fulness, of  chastity,  of  honesty  ?  It  is  difficult  to  tell. 
The  poets  and  artists  taught  ideas  of  beauty,  of  grace, 
of  strength ;  and  Nature  in  her  grandeur  and  loveliness 
taught  the  same  things.  Hence  a  severe  taste  was 
cultivated,  which  excluded  vulgarity  and  grossness  in 
the  intercourse  of  life.  It  was  the  rule  to  be  courteous, 
affable,  gentlemanly,  for  all  this  was  in  harmony  with 
the  severity  of  art.  The  comic  poets  ridiculed  preten- 
sion, arrogance,  quackery,  and  lies.  Patriotism,  which 
was  learned  from  the  dangers  of  the  State,  amid  war- 
like and  unscrupulous  neighbors,  called  out  many 
manly  virtues,  like  courage,  fortitude,  heroism,  and 
self-sacrifice.  A  hard  and  rocky  soil  necessitated  in- 
dustry, thrift,  and  severe  punishment  on  those  who 
stole  the  fruits  of  labor,  even  as  miners  in  the  Eocky 
Mountains  sacredly  abstain  from  appropriating  the 
gold  of  their  fellow-laborers.  Self-interest  and  self- 
preservation  dictated  many  laws  which  secured  the 
welfare  of  society.     The  natural  sacredness  of  home 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  129 

guarded  the  virtue  of  wives  and  children ;  the  natural 
sense  of  justice  raised  indignation  against  cheating  and 
tricks  in  trade.  Men  and  women  cannot  live  together 
in  peace  and  safety  without  observing  certain  condi- 
tions, which  may  be  ranked  with  virtues  even  among 
savages  and  barbarians,  —  much  more  so  in  cultivated 
and  refined  communities. 

The  graces  and  amenities  of  life  can  exist  without 
reference  to  future  rewards  and  punishments.  The 
ultimate  law  of  self-preservation  will  protect  men  in 
ordinary  times  against  murder  and  violence,  and  will 
lead  to  public  and  social  enactments  which  bad  men 
fear  to  violate.  A  traveller  ordinarily  feels  as  safe  in 
a  highly-civilized  pagan  community  as  in  a  Christian 
city.  The  "  heathen  Chinee  "  fears  the  ofl&cers  of  the 
law  as  much  as  does  a  citizen  of  London. 

The  great  difference  between  a  Pagan  and  a  Christian 
people  is  in  the  power  of  conscience,  in  the  sense  of  a 
moral  accountability  to  a  spiritual  Deity,  in  the  hopes 
or  fears  of  a  future  state,  —  motives  which  have  a 
powerful  influence  on  the  elevation  of  individual  char- 
acter and  the  development  of  higher  types  of  social 
organization.  But  whatever  laws  are  necessary  for  the 
maintenance  of  order,  the  repression  of  violence,  of 
crimes  against  person  and  the  State  and  the  general 
material  welfare  of  society,  are  found  in  Pagan  as  well 
as  in  Christian   States;  and  the  natural  affections, — of 


130    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

paternal  and  filial  love,  friendship,  patriotism,  generosity, 
etc.,  —  while  strengthened  by  Christianity,  are  also  an 
inalienable  part  of  the  God-given  heritage  of  all  man- 
kind We  see  many  heroic  traits,  many  manly  virtues, 
many  domestic  amenities,  and  many  exalted  sentiments 
in  pagan  Greece,  even  if  these  were  not  taught  by  priests 
or  sages.  Every  man  instinctively  clings  to  life,  to 
property,  to  home,  to  parents,  to  wife  and  children ;  and 
hence  these  are  guarded  in  every  community,  and  the 
violation  of  these  rights  is  ever  punished  with  greater  or 
less  severity  for  the  sake  of  general  security  and  public 
welfare,  even  if  there  be  no  belief  in  God.  Eeligion,  loft- 
ily considered,  has  but  little  to  do  with  the  temporal  in- 
terests of  men.  Governments  and  laws  take  these  under 
their  protection,  and  it  is  men  who  make  governments 
and  laws.  They  are  made  from  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,  from  patriotic  aspirations,  from  the  necessi- 
ties of  civilization.  Eeligion,  from  the  Christian  stand- 
point, is  unworldly,  having  reference  to  the  life  which  is 
to  come,  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  conscience,  to  re- 
straint from  sins  not  punishable  by  the  laws,  and  to  the 
inspiration  of  virtues  which  have  no  worldly  reward. 

This  kind  of  religion  was  not  taught  by  Grecian 
priests  or  poets  or  artists,  and  did  not  exist  in  Greece, 
with  all  its  refinements  and  glories,  until  partially 
communicated  by  those  philosophers  who  meditated 
ou  the  secrets  of  Nature,  the  mighty  mysteries  of  life, 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  131 

and  the  duties  which  reason  and  reflection  reveal. 
And  it  may  be  noticed  that  the  philosophers  them- 
selves, who  began  with  speculations  on  the  origin  of 
the  universe,  the  nature  of  the  gods,  the  operations  of 
the  mind,  and  the  laws  of  matter,  ended  at  last  with 
ethical  inquiries  and  injunctions.  We  see  this  illus- 
trated in  Socrates  and  Zeno.  They  seemed  to  despair 
of  finding  out  God,  of  explaining  the  wonders  of  his 
universe,  and  came  down  to  practical  life  in  its  sad 
realities,  —  like  Solomon  himself  when  he  said,  "  Fear 
God  and  keep  his  commandments,  for  this  is  the  whole 
duty  of  man."  In  ethical  teachings  and  inquiries  some 
of  these  philosophers  reached  a  height  almost  equal  to 
that  which  Christian  sages  aspired  to  climb ;  and  had 
the  world  practised  the  virtues  which  they  taught, 
there  would  scarcely  have  been  need  of  a  new  revela- 
tion, so  far  as  the  observance  of  rules  to  promote 
happiness  on  earth  is  concerned.  But  these  Pagan 
sages  did  not  hold  out  hopes  beyond  the  grave. 
They  even  doubted  whether  the  soul  was  mortal  or 
immortal.  They  did  teach  many  ennobling  and  lofty 
truths  for  the  enlightenment  of  thinkers ;  but  they 
held  out  no  divine  help,  nor  any  hope  of  completing 
in  a  future  life  the  failures  of  this  one ;  and  hence 
they  failed  in  saving  society  from  a  persistent  degra- 
dation, and  in  elevating  ordinary  men  to  those  glorious 
heights  reached  by  the  Christian  converts. 


132    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

That  was  the  point  to  which  Augustine  directed  his 
vast  genius  and  his  unrivalled  logic.  He  admitted  that 
arts  might  civilize,  and  that  the  elaborate  mythology 
which  he  ridiculed  was  interesting  to  the  people,  and 
was,  as  a  creation  of  the  poets,  ingenious  and  beautiful ; 
but  he  showed  that  it  did  not  reveal  a  future  state,  that 
it  did  not  promise  eternal  happiness,  that  it  did  not  re- 
strain men  from  those  sins  which  human  laws  could 
not  punish,  and  that  it  did  not  exalt  the  soul  to  lofty 
communion  with  the  Deity,  or  kindle  a  truly  spiritual 
life,  and  therefore  was  worthless  as  a  religion,  imbecile 
to  save,  and  only  to  be  classed  with  those  myths  which 
delight  an  ignorant  or  sensuous  people,  and  with  those 
rites  which  are  shrouded  in  mystery  and  gloom.  Nor 
did  he,  in  his  matchless  argument  against  the  gods 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  take  for  his  attack  those  dei- 
ties whose  rites  were  most  degrading  and  senseless, 
and  which  the  thinking  world  despised,  but  the 
most  lofty  forms  of  pagan  religion,  such  as  were 
accepted  by  moralists  and  philosophers  like  Seneca 
and  Plato.  And  thus  he  reached  the  intelligence  of 
the  age,  and  gave  a  final  blow  to  all  the  gods  of 
antiquity. 

It  would  be  instructive  to  show  that  the  religion  of 
Greece,  as  embraced  by  the  people,  did  not  prevent  or 
even  condemn  those  social  evils  that  are  the  greatest 
blot  on  enlightened  civilization.     It  did  not  discourage 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  133 

slavery,  the  direst  evil  which  ever  afflicted  humanity  ; 
it  did  not  elevate  woman  to  her  true  position  at  home 
or  in  public;  it  ridiculed  those  passive  virtues  that 
are  declared  and  commended  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount ;  it  did  not  pronounce  against  the  wickedness 
of  war,  or  the  vanity  of  military  glory ;  it  did  not 
dignify  home,  or  the  virtues  of  the  family  circle  ;  it 
did  not  declare  the  folly  of  riches,  or  show  that  the 
love  of  money  is  a  root  of  all  evil.  It  made  sensual 
pleasure  and  outward  prosperity  the  great  aims  of 
successful  ambition,  and  hid  with  an  impenetrable 
screen  from  the  eyes  of  men  the  fatal  results  of  a 
worldly  life,  so  that  suicide  itself  came  to  be  viewed 
as  a  justifiable  way  to  avoid  evils  that  are  hard  to  be 
borne ;  in  short,  it  was  a  religion  which,  though  joy- 
ous, was  without  hope,  and  with  innumerable  deities 
was  without  God  in  the  world, — which  was  no  religion 
at  all,  but  a  fable,  a  delusion,  and  a  superstition,  as 
Paul  argued  before  the  assembled  intellect  of  the  most 
fastidious  and  cultivated  city  of  the  world. 

And  yet  we  see  among  those  who  worshipped  the 
gods  of  Greece  a  sense  of  dependence  on  supernatural 
power;  and  this  dependence  stands  out,  both  in  the 
Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  among  the  boldest  heroes. 
They  seem  to  be  reverential  to  the  powers  above  them, 
however  indefinite  their  views.  In  the  best  ages  of 
Greece  the  worship  of  the  various  deities  was  sincere 


134    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

and  universal,   and  was  attended  with  sacrifices  to 
propitiate  favor  or  avert  their  displeasure. 

It  does  not  appear  that  these  sacrifices  were  always 
offered  by  priests.  Warriors,  kings,  and  heroes  them- 
selves sacrificed  oxen,  sheep,  and  goats,  and  poured  out 
libations  to  the  gods.  Homer's  heroes  were  Tery  strenu- 
ous in  the  exercise  of  these  duties  ;  and  they  generally 
traced  their  calamities  and  misfortunes  to  the  neglect 
of  sacrifices,  which  was  a  great  offence  to  the  deities, 
from  Zeus  down  to  inferior  gods.  "We  read,  too,  that 
the  gods  were  supplicated  in  fervent  prayer.  There 
was  universally  felt,  in  earlier  times,  a  need  of  divine 
protection.  If  the  gods  did  not  confer  eternal  life, 
they  conferred,  it  was  supposed,  temporal  and  worldly 
good.  People  prayed  for  the  same  blessings  that  the  an- 
cient Jews  sought  from  Jehovah.  In  this  sense  the 
early  Greeks  were  religious.  Irreverence  toward  the 
gods  was  extremely  rare.  The  people,  however,  did 
not  pray  for  divine  guidance  in  the  discharge  of  duty, 
but  for  the  blessings  which  would  give  them  health 
and  prosperity.  We  seldom  see  a  proud  self-reliance 
even  among  the  heroes  of  the  Iliad,  but  great  solici- 
tude to  secure  aid  from  the  deities  they  worshipped. 

The  religion  of  the  Eomans  differed  in  some  respects 
from  that  of  the  Greeks,  inasmuch  as  it  was  emphati- 
cally a  state  religion.     It  was  more  of  a  ritual  and  a 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  135 

ceremony.  It  included  most  of  the  deities  of  the  Greek 
Pantheon,  but  was  more  comprehensive.  It  accepted 
the  gods  of  all  the  nations  that  composed  the  empire, 
and  placed  them  in  the  Pantheon,  —  even  Mithra,  the 
Persian  sun-god,  and  the  Isis  and  Osiris  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, to  whom  sacrifices  were  made  by  those  who 
worshipped  them  at  home.  It  was  also  a  purer  myth- 
ology, and  rejected  many  of  the  blasphemous  myths 
concerning  the  loves  and  quarrels  of  the  Grecian  dei- 
ties. It  was  more  practical  and  less  poetical.  Every 
Eoman  god  had  something  to  do,  some  useful  office  to 
perform.  Several  divinities  presided  over  the  birth 
and  nursing  of  an  infant,  and  they  were  worshipped 
for  some  fancied  good,  for  the  benefits  which  they 
were  supposed  to  bestow.  There  was  an  elaborate 
"  division  of  labor  "  among  them.  A  divmity  presided 
over  bakers,  another  over  ovens,  —  every  vocation 
and  every  household  transaction  had  its  presiding 
deities. 

There  were  more  superstitious  rites  practised  by 
the  Eomans  than  by  the  Greeks,  —  such  as  examin- 
ing the  entrails  of  beasts  and  birds  for  good  or  bad 
omens.  Great  attention  was  given  to  dreams  and  rites 
of  divination.  The  Eoman  household  gods  were  of 
great  account,  since  there  was  a  more  defined  and 
general  worship  of  ancestors  than  among  the  Greeks. 
These  were  the  Penates,  or   familiar  household  gods, 


136    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

the  guardians  of  the  home,  whose  fire  on  the  sacred 
hearth  was  perpetually  burning,  and  to  whom  every 
meal  was  esteemed  a  sacrifice.  These  included  a  Lar, 
or  ancestral  family  divinity,  in  each  house.  There 
were  Vestal  virgins  to  guard  the  most  sacred  places. 
There  was  a  college  of  pontiffs  to  regulate  worship 
and  perform  the  higher  ceremonies,  which  were  com- 
plicated and  minute.  The  pontiffs  were  presided  over 
by  one  called  Pontifex  Maximus,  —  a  title  shrewdly 
assumed  by  Csesar  to  gain  control  of  the  popular  wor- 
ship, and  still  surviving  in  the  title  of  the  Pope  of 
Eome  with  his  college  of  cardinals.  There  were  augurs 
and  haruspices  to  discover  the  will  of  the  gods,  accord- 
ing to  entrails  and  the  flight  of  birds. 

The  festivals  were  more  numerous  in  Rome  than 
in  Greece,  and  perhaps  were  more  piously  observed. 
About  one  day  in  four  was  set  apart  for  the  worship 
of  particular  gods,  celebrated  by  feasts  and  games  and 
sacrifices.  The  principal  feast  days  were  in  honor  of 
Janus,  the  great  god  of  the  Sabines,  the  god  of  begin- 
nings, celebrated  on  the  first  of  January,  to  which 
month  he  gave  his  name ;  also  the  feasts  in  honor  of 
the  Penates,  of  Mars,  of  Vesta,  of  Minerva,  of  Venus, 
of  Ceres,  of  Juno,  of  Jupiter,  and  of  Saturn.  The 
Saturnalia,  December  19,  in  honor  of  Saturn,  the 
annual  Thanksgiving,  lasted  seven  days,  when  the 
rich  kept  open  house  and  slaves  had  their  liberty,  — 


From  a  photograph  of  the  statue  in  the  Vatican,  Rome 
APOLLO  BELVEDERE 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  137 

the  most  joyous  of  the  festivals.  The  feast  of  Mi- 
nerva lasted  five  days,  when  offerings  were  made  by 
all  mechanics,  artists,  and  scholars.  The  feast  of 
Cybele,  analogous  to  that  of  Ceres  in  Greece  and  Isis 
in  Egypt,  lasted  six  days.  These  various  feasts  im- 
posed great  contributions  on  the  people,  and  were 
managed  by  the  pontiffs  with  the  most  minute  ob- 
servances and  legalities. 

The  principal  Koman  divinities  were  the  Olympic 
gods  under  Latin  names,  like  Jupiter,  Juno,  Mars, 
Minerva  Neptune,  Vesta,  Apollo,  Venus,  Ceres,  and 
Diana;  but  the  secondary  deities  were  almost  innu- 
merable. Some  of  the  deities  were  of  Etruscan,  some 
of  Sabine,  and  some  of  Latin  origin;  but  most  of  them 
were  imported  from  Greece  or  corresponded  with  those 
of  the  Greek  mythology.  Many  were  manufactured 
by  the  pontiffs  for  utilitarian  purposes,  and  were  mere 
abstractions,  like  Hope,  Fear,  Concord,  Justice,  Clem- 
ency, etc.,  to  which  temples  were  erected.  The  powers 
of  Nature  were  also  worshipped,  like  the  sun,  the  moon, 
and  stars.  The  best  side  of  Eoman  life  was  represented 
in  the  worship  of  Vesta,  who  presided  over  the  house- 
hold fire  and  home,  and  was  associated  with  the  Lares 
and  Penates.  Of  these  household  gods  the  head  of  the 
family  was  the  officiating  minister  who  offered  prayers 
and  sacrifices.  The  Vestal  virgins  received  especial 
honor,  and  were  appointed  by  the  Pontifex  Maximus. 


138    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

Thus  the  Romans  accounted  themselves  very  reli- 
gious, and  doubtless  are  to  be  so  accounted,  certainly 
in  the  same  sense  as  were  the  Athenians  by  the  Apostle 
Paul,  since  altars,  statues,  and  temples  in  honor  of  gods 
were  everywhere  present  to  the  eye,  and  rites  and  cere- 
monies were  most  systematically  and  mechanically 
observed  according  to  strict  rules  laid  down  by  the 
pontiffs.  They  were  grave  and  decorous  in  their 
devotions,  and  seemed  anxious  to  learn  from  their 
augurs  and  haruspices  the  will  of  the  gods ;  and 
their  funeral  ceremonies  were  held  with  great  pomp 
and  ceremony.  As  faith  in  the  gods  declined,  cere- 
monies and  pomps  were  multiplied,  and  the  ice  of 
ritualism  accumulated  on  the  banks  of  piety.  Su- 
perstition and  unbelief  went  hand  in  hand.  Worship 
in  the  temples  was  most  imposing  when  the  amours 
and  follies  of  the  gods  were  most  ridiculed  in  the 
theatres ;  and  as  the  State  was  rigorous  in  its  religious 
observances,  hypocrisy  became  the  vice  of  the  most 
prominent  and  influential  citizens.  What  sincerity 
was  there  in  Julius  Ceesar  when  he  discharged  the 
duties  of  high-priest  of  the  Republic  ?  It  was  impos- 
sible for  an  educated  Roman  who  read  Plato  and 
Zeno  to  believe  in  Janus  and  Juno.  It  was  all  very 
well  for  the  people  so  to  believe,  he  said,  who  must 
be  kept  in  order ;  but  scepticism  increased  in  the 
higher  classes  until  the  prevailing  atheism  culminated 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  139 

in  the  poetry  of  Lucretius,  who  had  the  boldness  to 
declare  that  faith  in  the  gods  had  been  the  curse  of 
the  human  race. 

If  the  Eomans  were  more  devoted  to  mere  external 
and  ritualistic  services  than  the  Greeks,  —  more  out- 
wardly religious,  —  they  were  also  more  hypocriticaL 
If  they  were  not  professed  freethinkers,  —  for  the  State 
did  not  tolerate  opposition  or  ridicule  of  those  things 
which  it  instituted  or  patronized,  —  religion  had  but 
little  practical  effect  on  their  lives.  The  Romans  were 
more  immoral  yet  more  observant  of  religious  cere- 
monies than  the  Greeks,  who  acted  and  thought  as 
they  pleased.  Intellectual  independence  was  not  one 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  Roman  citizen.  He  pro- 
fessed to  think  as  the  State  prescribed,  for  the  masters 
of  the  world  were  the  slaves  of  the  State  in  religion  as 
in  war.  The  Romans  were  more  gross  in  their  vices  as 
they  were  more  pharisaical  in  their  profession  than  the 
Greeks,  whom  they  conquered  and  imitated.  Neither 
the  sincere  worship  of  ancestors,  nor  the  ceremonies 
and  rites  which  they  observed  in  honor  of  their  innu- 
merable divinities,  softened  the  severity  of  their  char- 
acter, or  weakened  their  passion  for  war  and  bloody 
sports.  Their  hard  and  rigid  wills  were  rarely  moved 
by  the  cries  of  agony  or  the  shrieks  of  despair.  Their 
slavery  was  more  cruel  than  among  any  nation  of 
antiquity.     Butchery  and  legalized   murder  were  the 

VOL.  I. -—8 


140    RELIGION  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  ROMANS. 

delight  of  Eomans  in  their  conquering  days,  as  were 
inhuman  sports  in  the  days  of  their  political  decline. 
Where  was  the  spirit  of  religion,  as  it  was  even  in 
India  and  Egypt,  when  women  were  debased;  when 
every  man  and  woman  held  a  human  being  in  cruel 
bondage;  when  home  was  abandoned  for  the  circus 
and  the  amphitheatre ;  when  the  cry  of  the  mourner 
was  unheard  in  shouts  of  victory;  when  women  sold 
themselves  as  wives  to  those  who  would  pay  the  high- 
est price,  and  men  abstained  from  marriage  unless  they 
could  fatten  on  rich  dowries;  when  utility  was  the 
spring  of  every  action,  and  demoralizing  pleasure  was 
the  universal  pursuit ;  when  feastings  and  banquets 
were  riotous  and  expensive,  and  violence  and  rapine 
were  restrained  only  by  the  strong  arm  of  law  dic- 
tated by  instincts  of  self-preservation  ?  Where  was 
the  ennobling  influence  of  the  gods,  when  nobody  of 
any  position  finally  believed  in  them  ?  How  power- 
less the  gods,  when  the  general  depravity  was  so  glar- 
ing as  to  call  out  the  terrible  invective  of  Paul,  the 
cosmopolitan  traveller,  the  shrewd  observer,  the  pure- 
hearted  Christian  missionary,  indicting  not  a  few,  but 
a  whole  people :  "  Who  exchanged  the  truth  of  God 
for  a  lie,  and  worshipped  and  served  the  creature 
rather  than  the  Creator,  .  .  .  being  filled  with  all 
unrighteousness,  fornication,  wickedness,  covetousness, 
maliciousness ;    full   of   envy,   murder,   strife,   deceit, 


CLASSIC  MYTHOLOGY.  141 

malignity ;  whisperers,  backbiters,  haters  of  God,  in^ 
Solent,  haughty,  boastful,  inventors  of  evil  things,  dis- 
obedient to  parents,  without  understanding,  covenant- 
breakers,  without  natural  affections,  unmerciful."  An 
awful  picture,  but  sustained  by  the  evidence  of  the  Ro- 
man writers  of  that  day  as  certainly  no  worse  than 
the  hideous  reality. 

If  this  was  the  outcome  of  the  most  exquisitely 
poetical  and  art-inspiring  mythology  the  world  has 
ever  known,  what  wonder  that  the  pure  spirituality  of 
Jesus  the  Christ,  shining  into  that  blackness  of  dark- 
ness, should  have  been  hailed  by  perishing  millions  as 
the  "  light  of  the  world  "  I 


AUTHORITIES. 

Rawlinson's  Religions  of  the  Ancient  World;  Grote's  His- 
tory of  Greece ;  Thirlwall's  History  of  Greece ;  Homer's  Iliad 
and  Odyssey ;  Max  Miiller's  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop ; 
Curtius's  History  of  Greece ;  Mr.  Gladstone's  Homer  and  the 
Homeric  Age;  Rawlinson's  Herodotus;  Dollinger's  Jew  and 
Gentile;  Penton's  Lectures  on  Ancient  and  Modern  Greece; 
Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Mythology;  Clarke's 
Ten  Great  Religious;  D wight's  Mythology;  Saint  Augustine's 
City  of  God. 


CONFUCIUS: 

SAGE  AND  MORALIST. 
550-478  B.C. 


CONFUCIUS. 


SAGE    AND    MORALIST. 

A  BOUT  one  hundred  years  after  the  great  religious 
■^^-  movement  in  India  under  Buddha,  a  man  was 
born  in  China  who  inaugurated  a  somewhat  similar 
movement  there,  and  who  impressed  his  character 
and  principles  on  three  hundred  millions  of  people. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  he  was  the  founder  of  a  new 
religion,  since  he  aimed  only  to  revive  what  was  an- 
cient. To  quote  his  own  words,  he  was  "  a  transmitter, 
and  not  a  maker."  But  he  was,  nevertheless,  a  very 
extraordinary  character ;  and  if  greatness  is  to  be 
measured  by  results,  I  know  of  no  heathen  teacher 
whose  work  has  been  so  permanent.  In  genius,  in 
creative  power,  he  was  inferior  to  many  ;  but  in  influ- 
ence he  has  had  no  equal  among  the  sages  of  the 
world. 

"Confucius"  is  a  Latin  name  given  him  by  Jesuit 
missionaries  in  China;  his  real  name  was  K'ung-foo- 
tseu.     He  was  born  about  550  B.C.,  in  the  province 


146  CONFUCIUS. 


of  Loo,  and  was  the  contemporary  of  Belshazzar,  of 
Cjrrus,  of  Croesus,  and  of  Pisistratus.  It  is  claimed 
that  Confucius  was  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  early 
emperors  of  China,  of  the  Chow  dynasty,  1121  b.  c. ; 
but  he  was  simply  of  an  upper-class  family  of  the  State 
of  Loo,  one  of  the  provinces  of  the  empire,  —  his  father 
and  grandfather  having  been  prime  ministers  to  the 
reigning  princes  or  dukes  of  Loo,  which  State  resem- 
bled a  feudal  province  of  France  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
acknowledging  only  a  nominal  fealty  to  the  Emperor. 

We  know  but  little  of  the  early  condition  of  China. 
The  earliest  record  of  events  which  can  be  called 
history  takes  us  back  to  about  2350  b.  c,  when  Yaou 
was  emperor,  —  an  intelligent  and  benignant  prince, 
uniting  under  his  sway  the  different  States  of  China, 
which  had  even  then  reached  a  considerable  civiliza- 
tion, for  the  legendary  or  mythical  history  of  the  coun- 
try dates  back  about  five  thousand  years.  Yaou's  son 
Shun  was  an  equally  remarkable  man,  wise  and  ac- 
complished, who  lived  only  to  advance  the  happiness 
of  his  subjects.  At  that  period  the  religion  of  China 
was  probably  monotheistic.  The  supreme  being  was 
called  Shang-te,  to  whom  sacrifices  were  made,  a  deity 
who  exercised  a  superintending  care  of  the  universe; 
but  corruptions  rapidly  crept  in,  and  a  worship  of  the 
powers  of  Nature  and  of  the  spirits  of  departed  an- 
cestors, wlio  were  supposed  to  guard  the  welfare  of 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  t47 

their  descendants,  became  the  prevailing  religion. 
During  the  reigns  of  these  good  emperors  the  stand- 
ard of  morahty  was  high  throughout  the  empire. 

But  morals  declined,  —  the  old  story  in  all  the  States 
of  the  ancient  world.  In  addition  to  the  decline  in 
morals,  there  were  political  discords  and  endless  wars 
between  the  petty  princes  of  the  empire. 

To  remedy  the  political  and  moral  evils  of  his  time 
was  the  great  desire  and  endeavor  of  Confucius.  The 
most  marked  feature  in  the  religion  of  the  Chinese, 
before  his  time,  was  the  worship  of  ancestors,  and 
this  worship  he  did  not  seek  to  change.  "  Confucius 
taught  three  thousand  disciples,  of  whom  the  more 
eminent  became  influential  authors.  Like  Plato  and 
Xenophon,  they  recorded  the  sayings  of  their  master, 
and  his  maxims  and  arguments  preserved  in  their 
works  were  afterward  added  to  the  national  collection 
of  the  sacred  books  called  the  '  Nim  Classes.' " 

Confucius  was  a  mere  boy  when  his  father  died,  and 
we  know  next  to  nothing  of  his  early  years.  At  fif- 
teen years  of  age,  however,  we  are  told  that  he  devoted 
himself  to  learning,  pursuing  his  studies  under  con- 
siderable difficulties,  his  family  being  poor.  He  mar- 
ried when  he  was  nineteen  years  of  age;  and  in  the 
following  year  was  born  his  son  Le,  his  only  child, 
of  whose  descendants  eleven  thousand  males  were 
living  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  constituting 


148  CONFUCIUS. 


the  only  hereditary  nobility  of  China,  —  a  class  who  for 
seventy  generations  were  the  recipients  of  the  highest 
honors  and  privileges.  On  the  birth  of  Le,  the  duke 
Ch'aou  of  Loo  sent  Confucius  a  present  of  a  carp, 
which  seems  to  indicate  that  he  was  already  distin- 
guished for  his  attainments. 

At  twenty  years  of  age  Confucius  entered  upon  po- 
litical duties,  being  the  superintendent  of  cattle,  from 
which,  for  his  fidelity  and  ability,  he  was  promoted 
to  the  higher  office  of  distributer  of  grain,  having  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  his  sovereign.  At  twenty-two 
he  began  his  labors  as  a  public  teacher,  and  his  house 
became  the  resort  of  enthusiastic  youth  who  wished  to 
learn  the  doctrines  of  antiquity.  These  were  all  that 
the  sage  undertook  to  teach,  —  not  new  and  original 
doctrines  of  morahty  or  political  economy,  but  only 
such  as  were  established  from  a  remote  antiquity, 
going  back  two  thousand  years  before  he  was  bom. 
There  is  no  improbability  in  this  alleged  antiquity 
of  the  Chinese  Empire,  for  Egypt  at  this  time  was 
a  flourishing  State. 

At  twenty-nine  years  of  age  Confucius  gave  his 
attention  to  music,  which  he  studied  under  a  famous 
master;  and  to  this  art  he  devoted  no  small  part  of 
his  life,  writing  books  and  treatises  upon  it  Six 
years  afterward,  at  thirty-five,  he  had  a  great  desire 
to  travel;   and  the  reigning  duke,  in   whose  service 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  149 

he  was  as  a  high  officer  of  state,  put  at  his  disposal 
a  carriage  and  two  horses,  to  visit  the  court  of  the 
Emperor,  whose  sovereignty,  however,  was  only  nomi- 
nal. It  does  not  appear  that  Confucius  was  received 
with  much  distinction,  nor  did  he  have  much  inter- 
course with  the  court  or  the  ministers.  He  was 
a  mere  seeker  of  knowledge,  an  inquirer  about  the 
ceremonies  and  maxims  of  the  founder  of  the  dy- 
nasty of  Chow,  an  observer  of  customs,  like  Herod- 
otus. He  wandered  for  eight  years  among  the  various 
provinces  of  China,  teaching  as  he  went,  but  with- 
out making  a  great  impression.  Moreover,  he  was 
regarded  with  jealousy  by  the  different  ministers  of 
princes  ;  one  of  them,  however,  struck  with  his  wisdom 
and  knowledge,  wished  to  retain  him  in  his  service. 

On  the  return  of  Confucius  to  Loo,  he  remained 
fifteen  years  without  official  employment,  his  native 
province  being  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  But  he  was 
better  employed  than  in  serving  princes,  prosecuting 
his  researches  into  poetry,  history,  ceremonies,  and 
music,  —  a  born  scholar,  with  insatiable  desire  of 
knowledge.  His  great  gifts  and  learning,  however, 
did  not  allow  him  to  remain  without  public  employ- 
ment. He  was  made  governor  of  an  important  city. 
As  chief  magistrate  of  this  city,  he  made  a  marvel- 
lous change  in  the  manners  of  the  people.  The  duke, 
surprised   at  what  he  saw,  asked  if  hi«.  rules  could 


150  CONFUCIUS. 


be  employed  to  govern  a  whole  State ;  and  Confucius 
told  him  that  they  could  be  applied  to  the  government 
of  the  Empire.  On  this  the  duke  appointed  him 
assistant  superintendent  of  Public  Works,  —  a  great 
ofl&ce,  held  only  by  members  of  the  ducal  family.  So 
many  improvements  did  Confucius  make  in  agriculture 
that  he  was  made  minister  of  Justice ;  and  so  wonder- 
ful was  his  management,  that  soon  there  was  no  ne- 
cessity to  put  the  penal  laws  in  execution,  since  no 
offenders  could  be  found.  Confucius  held  his  high 
office  as  minister  of  Justice  for  two  years  longer,  and 
some  suppose  he  was  made  prime  minister.  His  au- 
thority certainly  continued  to  increase.  He  exalted 
the  sovereign,  depressed  the  ministers,  and  weakened 
private  families,  —  just  as  Richelieu  did  in  France, 
strengthening  the  throne  at  the  expense  of  the  nobil- 
ity. It  would  thus  seem  that  his  political  reforms  were 
in  the  direction  of  absolute  monarchy,  a  needed  force  in 
times  of  anarchy  and  demoralization.  So  great  was  his 
fame  as  a  statesman  that  strangers  came  from  other 
States  to  see  him. 

These  reforms  in  the  state  of  Loo  gave  annoyance 
to  the  neighboring  princes ;  and  to  undermine  the  in- 
fluence of  Confucius  with  the  duke,  these  princes  sent 
the  duke  a  present  of  eighty  beautiful  girls,  possessing 
musical  and  dancing  accomplishments,  and  also  one 
hundred   and   twenty  splendid   horses.     As  the  duke 


SAGE  AND   MORALIST.  151 

soon  came  to  think  more  of  his  girls  and  horses  than 
of  his  reforms,  Confucius  became  disgusted,  resigned 
his  office,  and  retired  to  private  life.  Then  followed 
thirteen  years  of  homeless  wandering.  He  was  now 
fifty-six  years  of  age,  depressed  and  melancholy  in 
view  of  his  failure  with  princes.  He  was  accompa- 
nied in  his  travels  by  some  of  his  favorite  disciples, 
to  whom  he  communicated  his  wisdom. 

But  his  fame  preceded  him  wherever  he  journeyed, 
and  such  was  the  respect  for  his  character  and  teach- 
ings that  he  was  loaded  with  presents  by  the  people, 
and  was  left  unmolested  to  do  as  he  pleased.  The 
dissoluteness  of  courts  filled  him  with  indignation  and 
disgust ;  and  he  was  heard  to  exclaim  on  one  occasion, 
"  I  have  not  seen  one  who  loves  virtue  as  he  loves 
beauty,"  —  meaning  the  beauty  of  women.  The  love 
of  the  beautiful,  in  an  artistic  sense,  is  a  Greek  and 
not  an  Oriental  idea. 

In  the  meantime  Confucius  continued  his  wander- 
ings from  city  to  city  and  State  to  State,  with  a  chosen 
band  of  disciples,  all  of  whom  became  famous.  He 
travelled  for  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  and  to  impress 
the  people  with  his  doctrines.  A  certain  one  of  his 
followers  was  questioned  by  a  prince  as  to  the  merits 
and  peculiarities  of  his  master,  but  was  afraid  to  give 
a  true  answer.  The  sage  hearing  of  it,  said,  "  You 
should  have  told  him.  He  is  simply  a  man  who  in  his 


162  CONFUCIUS. 


eager  pursuit  of  knowledge  forgets  his  food,  who  in  the 
joy  of  his  attainments  forgets  his  sorrows,  and  who 
does  not  perceive  that  old  age  is  coming  on."  How 
seldom  is  it  that  any  man  reaches  such  a  height !  In 
a  single  sentence  the  philosopher  describes  himself 
truly  and  impressively. 

At  last,  in  the  year  491  B.  c,  a  new  sovereign  reigned 
in  Loo,  and  with  costly  presents  invited  Confucius  to 
return  to  his  native  State.  The  philosopher  was  now 
sixty-nine  years  of  age,  and  notwithstanding  the  re- 
spect in  which  he  was  held,  the  world  cannot  be  said 
to  have  dealt  kindly  with  him.  It  is  the  fate  of 
prophets  and  sages  to  be  rejected.  The  world  will  not 
bear  rebukes.  Even  a  friend,  if  discreet,  will  rarely 
ventme  to  tell  another  friend  his  faults.  Confucius 
told  the  truth  when  pressed,  but  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  courted  martyrdom ;  and  his  manners  and  speech 
were  too  bland,  too  proper,  too  unobtrusive  to  give 
much  offence.  Luther  was  aided  in  his  reforms  by 
his  very  roughness  and  boldness,  but  he  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  different  class  of  people  from  those 
whom  Confucius  sought  to  influence.  Conventional, 
polite,  considerate,  and  a  great  respecter  of  persons  in 
authority  was  the  Chinese  sage.  A  rude,  abrupt,  and 
fierce  reformer  would  have  had  no  weight  with  the 
most  courteous  and  polite  people  of  whom  history 
speaks ;    whose    manners   twenty-five   hundred   years 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  153 

ago  were  substantially  the  same  as  they  are  at  the 
present  day,  —  a  people  governed  by  the  laws  of 
propriety  alone. 

The  few  remaining  years  of  Confucius'  life  were 
spent  in  revising  his  writings ;  but  his  latter  days 
were  made  melancholy  by  dwelling  on  the  evils  of 
the  world  that  he  could  not  remove.  Disappoint- 
ment also  had  made  him  cynical  and  bitter,  like 
Solomon  of  old,  although  from  different  causes.  He 
survived  his  son  and  his  most  beloved  disciples. 
As  he  approached  the  dark  valley  he  uttered  no 
prayer,  and  betrayed  no  apprehension.  Death  to 
him  was  a  rest.  He  died  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
three. 

In  the  tenth  book  of  his  Analects  we  get  a  glimpse 
of  the  habits  of  the  philosopher.  He  was  a  man  of 
rule  and  ceremony.  He  was  particular  about  his 
dress  and  appearance.  He  was  no  ascetic,  but  mod- 
erate and  temperate.  He  lived  chiefly  on  rice,  like 
the  rest  of  his  countrymen,  but  required  to  have  his 
rice  cooked  nicely,  and  his  meat  cut  properly.  He 
drank  wine  freely,  but  was  never  known  to  have  ob- 
scured his  faculties  by  this  indulgence.  I  do  not 
read  that  tea  was  then  in  use.  He  was  charitable  and 
hospitable,  but  not  ostentatious.  He  generally  trav- 
elled in  a  carriage  with  two  horses,  driven  by  one  of 
his  disciples ;  but  a  carriage  in  those  days  was  like 


154  CONFUCIUS. 


one  of  our  carts.  In  his  village,  it  is  said,  he  looked 
simple  and  sincere,  as  if  he  were  one  not  able  to 
speak;  when  waiting  at  court,  or  speaking  with  offi- 
cers of  an  inferior  grade,  he  spoke  freely,  but  in  a 
straightforward  manner;  with  officers  of  a  higher, 
grade  he  spoke  blandly,  but  precisely  ;  with  the 
prince  he  was  grave,  but  self-possessed.  When  eat- 
ing he  did  not  converse;  when  in  bed  he  did  not 
speak.  If  his  mat  were  not  straight  he  did  not  sit 
on  it.  When  a  friend  sent  him  a  present  he  did  not 
bow;  the  only  present  for  which  he  bowed  was  that 
of  the  flesh  of  sacrifice.  He  was  capable  of  excessive 
grief,  with  all  his  placidity.  When  his  favorite  pupil 
died,  he  exclaimed,  "  Heaven  is  destroying  me  ! "  His 
disciples  on  this  said,  "  Sir,  your  grief  is  excessive." 
"  It  is  excessive,"  he  replied.  "  If  I  am  not  to  mourn 
bitterly  for  this  man,  for  whom  should  I  mourn  ? " 

The  reigning  prince  of  Loo  caused  a  temple  to  be 
erected  over  the  remains  of  Confucius,  and  the  number 
of  his  disciples  continually  increased.  The  emperors  of 
the  falling  dynasty  of  Chow  had  neither  the  intelligence 
nor  the  will  to  do  honor  to  the  departed  philosopher, 
but  the  emperors  of  the  succeeding  dynasties  did  all 
they  could  to  perpetuate  his  memory.  During  his 
life  Confucius  found  ready  acceptance  for  his  doc- 
trines, and  was  everywhere  revered  among  the  people, 
though  not  uniformly  appreciated  by  the  rulers,  nor 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  155 

able  permanently  to  establish  the  reforms  he  inaugu- 
rated. After  his  death,  however,  no  honor  was  too 
great  to  be  rendered  hira.  The  most  splendid  temple 
in  China  was  built  over  his  grave,  and  he  received 
a  homage  little  removed  from  worship.  His  writings 
became  a  sacred  rule  of  faith  and  practice ;  schools 
were  based  upon  them,  and  scholars  devoted  them- 
selves to  their  interpretation.  For  two  thousand 
years  Confucius  has  reigned  supreme,  —  the  undis- 
puted teacher  of  a  population  of  three  or  four  hun- 
dred millions. 

Confucius  must  be  regarded  as  a  man  of  great  hu- 
mility, conscious  of  infirmities  and  faults,  but  striving 
after  virtue  and  perfection.  He  said  of  himself,  "I 
have  striven  to  become  a  man  of  perfect  virtue,  and 
to  teach  others  without  weariness ;  but  the  charac- 
ter of  the  superior  man,  carrying  out  in  his  conduct 
what  he  professes,  is  what  I  have  not  attained  to. 
I  am  not  one  born  in  the  possession  of  knowledge,  but 
I  am  one  who  is  fond  of  antiquity,  and  earnest  in 
seeking  it  there.  I  am  a  transmitter,  and  not  a 
maker."  If  he  did  not  lay  claim  to  divine  illumina- 
tion, he  felt  that  he  was  born  into  the  world  for  a 
special  purpose ;  not  to  declare  new  truths,  not  to 
initiate  any  new  ceremony,  but  to  confirm  what  he 
felt  was  in  danger  of  being  lost,  —  the  most  con- 
servative of  all  known  reformers. 

VOL.  I.  —9 


166  CONFUCIUS. 


Confucius  left  behind  voluminous  writings,  of  which 
his  Analects,  his  book  of  Poetry,  his  book  of  History, 
and  his  Eules  of  Propriety  are  the  most  important 
It  is  these  which  are  now  taught,  and  have  been 
taught  for  two  thousand  years,  in  the  schools  and 
colleges  of  China.  The  Chinese  think  that  no  man 
so  great  and  perfect  as  he  has  ever  lived.  His  writ- 
ings are  held  in  the  same  veneration  that  Christians 
attach  to  their  own  sacred  literature.  There  is  this 
one  fundamental  difference  between  the  authors  of 
the  Bible  and  the  Chinese  sage,  —  that  he  did  not 
like  to  talk  of  spiritual  things;  indeed,  of  them  he 
was  ignorant,  professing  no  interest  in  relation  to  the 
working  out  of  abstruse  questions,  either  of  philosophy 
or  theology.  He  had  no  taste  or  capacity  for  such 
inquiries.  Hence,  he  did  not  aspire  to  throw  any 
new  light  on  the  great  problems  of  human  condition 
and  destiny ;  nor  did  he  speculate,  like  the  Ionian 
philosophers,  on  the  creation  or  end  of  things.  He 
was  not  troubled  about  the  origin  or  destiny  of 
man.  He  meddled  neither  with  physics  nor  meta- 
physics, but  he  earnestly  and  consistently  strove  to 
bring  to  light  and  to  enforce  those  principles  which 
had  made  remote  generations  wise  and  virtuous.  He 
confined  his  attention  to  outward  phenomena,  —  to 
the  world  of  sense  and  matter;  to  forms,  precedents, 
ceremonies,  proprieties,  rules  of  conduct,  filial  duties, 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  157 

and  duties  to  the  State ;  enjoining  temperance,  hon- 
esty, and  sincerity  as  the  cardinal  and  fundamental 
laws  of  private  and  national  prosperity.  He  was  no 
prophet  of  wrath,  though  living  in  a  corrupt  age.  He 
utters  no  anathemas  on  princes,  and  no  woes  on  peo- 
ples. Nor  does  he  glow  with  exalted  hopes  of  a  mil- 
lennium of  bliss,  or  of  the  beatitudes  of  a  future  state. 
He  was  not  stern  and  indignant  like  Elijah,  but  more 
like  the  courtier  and  counsellor  Elisha.  He  was  a  man 
of  the  world,  and  all  his  teachings  have  reference  to 
respectability  in  the  world's  regard.  He  doubted  more 
than  he  believed. 

And  yet  in  many  of  his  sayings  Confucius  rises  to  an 
exalted  height,  considering  his  age  and  circumstances. 
Some  of  them  remind  us  of  some  of  the  best  Proverbs 
of  Solomon.  In  general,  we  should  say  that  to  his 
mind  filial  piety  and  fraternal  submission  were  the 
foundation  of  all  virtuous  practices,  and  absolute  obedi- 
ence to  rulers  the  primal  principle  of  government.  He 
was  eminently  a  peace  man,  discouraging  wars  and  vio- 
lence. He  was  liberal  and  tolerant  in  his  views.  He 
said  that  the  "  superior  man  is  catholic  and  no  partisan." 
Duke  Gae  asked,  "  What  should  be  done  to  secure  the 
submission  of  the  people  ? "  The  sage  replied,  "Advance 
the  upright,  and  set  aside  the  crooked ;  then  the  people 
will  submit.  But  advance  the  crooked,  and  set  aside 
the  upright,  and  the  people  will  not  submit."     Again 


158  CONFUCIUS. 


he  said,  "  It  is  virtuous  manners  which  constitute  the 
excellence  of  a  neighborhood ;  therefore  fix  your  resi- 
dence where  virtuous  manners  prevail"  The  follow- 
ing sayings  remind  me  of  Epictetus :  "A  scholar  whose 
mind  is  set  on  truth,  and  who  is  ashamed  of  bad 
clothes  and  bad  food,  is  not  fit  to  be  discoursed  with, 
A  man  should  say,  '  I  am  not  concerned  that  I  have 
no  place,  —  I  am  concerned  how  I  may  fit  myself  for 
one.  I  am  not  concerned  that  I  am  not  known ; 
I  seek  to  be  worthy  to  be  known.'"  Here  Confu- 
cius looks  to  the  essence  of  things,  not  to  popular 
desires.  In  the  following,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
shows  his  prudence  and  policy :  "  In  serving  a  prince, 
frequent  remonstrances  lead  to  disgrace;  between 
friends,  frequent  reproofs  make  the  friendship  dis- 
tant." Thus  he  talks  like  Solomon.  "Tsae-yu,  one 
of  his  disciples,  being  asleep  in  the  day-time,  the 
master  said,  '  Kotten  wood  cannot  be  carved.  This 
Yu  —  what  is  the  use  of  my  reproving  him  ? ' "  Of  a 
virtuous  prince,  he  said :  "  In  his  conduct  of  him- 
self, he  was  humble ;  in  serving  his  superiors,  he  was 
respectful ;  in  nourishing  the  people,  he  was  kind ;  in 
ordering  the  people,  he  was  just." 

It  was  discussed  among  his  followers  what  it  is  to  be 
distinguished.  One  said :"  It  is  to  be  heard  of  through 
the  family  and  State."  The  master  replied  :  "  That  is 
notoriety,  not  distinction."    Again  he  said :  "  Though 


SAGB  AND  MORALIST.  159 

a  man  may  be  able  to  recite  three  hundred  odes,  yet  if 
when  intrusted  with  office  he  does  not  know  how  to 
act,  of  what  practical  use  is  his  poetical  knowledge  ? " 
Again,  "If  a  minister  cannot  rectify  himself,  what 
has  he  to  do  with  rectifying  others  ? "  There  is  great 
force  in  this  saying :  "  The  superior  man  is  easy  to 
serve  and  difficult  to  please,  since  you  cannot  pl«ase 
him  in  any  way  which  is  not  accordant  with  right; 
but  the  mean  man  is  difficult  to  serve  and  easy  to 
please.  The  superior  man  has  a  dignified  ease  without 
pride;  the  mean  man  has  pride  without  a  dignified 
ease."  A  disciple  asked  him  what  qualities  a  man 
must  possess  to  entitle  him  to  be  called  a  scholar. 
The  master  said :  "  He  must  be  earnest,  urgent,  and 
bland,  —  among  his  friends  earnest  and  urgent,  among 
his  brethren  bland."  And,  "  The  scholar  who  cherishes 
a  love  of  comfort  is  not  fit  to  be  deemed  a  scholar." 
"  If  a  man,"  he  said,  "  take  no  thought  about  what  is 
distant,  he  will  find  sorrow  near  at  hand."  And  again, 
"  He  who  requires  much  from  himself  and  little  from 
others,  he  will  keep  himself  from  being  an  object  of 
resentment."  These  proverbs  remind  us  of  Bacon : 
"  Specious  words  confound  virtue."  "  Want  of  for- 
bearance in  small  matters  confound  great  plans." 
"  Virtue,"  the  master  said,  "  is  more  to  man  than 
either  fire  or  water.  I  have  seen  men  die  from  tread- 
ing on  water  or  fire,  but  I  have  never  seen  a  man  die 


160  CONFUCIUS. 


from  treading  the  course  of  virtue."  This  is  a  lofty 
sentiment,  but  I  think  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 
records  of  martyrdom.  "  There  are  three  things,"  he 
continued,  "  which  the  superior  man  guards  against : 
In  youth  he  guards  against  his  passions,  in  man- 
hood against  quarrelsomeness,  and  in  old  age  against 
covetousness." 

I  do  not  find  anything  in  the  sayings  of  Confucius 
that  can  be  called  cynical,  such  as  we  find  in  some  of 
the  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  even  in  reference  to  women, 
where  women  were,  as  in  most  Oriental  countries,  de- 
spised. The  most  that  approaches  cynicism  is  in  such 
a  remark  as  this :  "  I  have  not  yet  seen  one  who  could 
perceive  his  faults  and  inwardly  accuse  himself."  His 
definition  of  perfect  virtue  is  above  that  of  Paley : 
"  The  man  of  virtue  makes  the  difficulty  to  be  over- 
come his  first  business,  and  success  only  a  secondary 
consideration."  Throughout  his  writings  there  is  no 
praise  of  success  without  virtue,  and  no  disparagement 
of  want  of  success  with  virtue.  Nor  have  I  found  in 
his  sayings  a  sentiment  which  may  be  called  demoral- 
izing. He  always  takes  the  higher  ground,  and  with 
all  his  ceremony  ever  exalts  inward  purity  above  all 
external  appearances.  There  is  a  quaint  common-sense 
in  some  of  his  writings  which  reminds  one  of  the  say- 
ings of  Abraham  Lincoln.  For  instance :  One  of  his 
disciples  asked,  "  If  you  had  the  conduct  of  armies, 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  161 

whom  would  you  have  to  act  with  you  ? "  The  master 
replied :  "  I  would  not  have  him  to  act  with  me  who 
will  unarmed  attack  a  tiger,  or  cross  a  river  without  a 
boat."  Here  something  like  wit  and  irony  break  out : 
"  A  man  of  the  village  said, '  Great  is  K'ung  the  phi- 
losopher ;  his  learning  is  extensive,  and  yet  he  does 
not  render  his  name  famous  by  any  particular  thing.' 
The  master  heard  this  observation,  and  said  to  his  dis- 
ciples :  '  What  shall  I  practise,  charioteering  or  arch- 
ery?    I  will  practise  charioteering.'" 

When  the  Duke  of  Loo  asked  about  government, 
the  master  said :  "  Good  government  exists  when  those 
who  are  near  are  made  happy,  and  when  those  who 
are  far  off  are  attracted."  When  the  Duke  ques- 
tioned him  again  on  the  same  subject,  he  replied: 
"  Go  before  the  people  with  your  example,  and  be 
laborious  in  their  affairs.  .  .  .  Pardon  small  faults, 
and  raise  to  office  men  of  virtue  and  talents."  "  But 
how  shall  I  know  the  men  of  virtue  ? "  asked  the 
duke.  "  Eaise  to  office  those  whom  you  do  know." 
The  key  to  his  political  philosophy  seems  to  be 
this :  "  A  man  who  knows  how  to  govern  himself, 
knows  how  to  govern  others ;  and  he  who  knows  how 
to  govern  other  men,  knows  how  to  govern  an  empire." 
"  The  art  of  government,"  he  said,  "  is  to  keep  its  affairs 
before  the  mind  without  weariness,  and  to  practise 
them    with   undeviating   constancy.    ...    To  govern 


162  CONFUCIUS. 


means  to  rectify.  If  you  lead  on  the  people  with 
correctness,  who  will  not  dare  to  be  correct  ? "  This 
is  one  of  his  favorite  principles ;  namely,  the  force 
of  a  good  example,  —  as  when  the  reigning  prince 
asked  him  how  to  do  away  with  thieves,  he  re- 
plied :  "  If  you,  Sir,  were  not  covetous,  although  you 
should  reward  them  to  do  it,  they  would  not  steal." 
This  was  not  intended  as  a  rebuke  to  the  prince,  but 
an  illustration  of  the  force  of  a  great  example.  Con- 
fucius rarely  openly  rebuked  any  one,  especially  a 
prince,  whom  it  was  his  duty  to  venerate  for  his 
office.  He  contented  himself  with  enforcing  prin- 
ciples. Here  his  moderation  and  great  courtesy  are 
seen. 

Confucius  sometimes  soared  to  the  highest  morality 
known  to  the  Pagan  world.  Chung-kung  asked  about 
perfect  virtue.  The  master  said  :  "  It  is  when  you  go 
abroad,  to  behave  to  every  one  as  if  you  were  receiving 
a  great  guest,  to  have  no  murmuring  against  you  in 
the  country  and  family,  and  not  to  do  to  others  as 
you  would  not  wish  done  to  yourself.  .  .  .  The  superior 
man  has  neither  anxiety  nor  fear.  Let  him  never 
fail  reverentially  to  order  his  own  conduct,  and  let 
him  be  respectful  to  others  and  observant  of  propri- 
ety ;  then  all  within  the  four  seas  will  be  brothers. 
.  .  .  Hold  faithfulness  and  sincerity  as  first  principles, 
and  be  moving  continually  to  what  is  right."     Fan-Chi 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  163 

asked  about  benevolence ;  the  master  said :  "  It  is  to 
iove  all  men."  Another  asked  about  friendship,  Con- 
fucius replied  :  "  Faithfully  admonish  your  friend,  and 
kindly  try  to  lead  him.  If  you  find  him  impracticable, 
stop.  Do  not  disgrace  yourself."  This  saying  reminds 
us  of  that  of  our  great  Master :  "  Cast  not  your 
pearls  before  swine."  There  is  no  greater  folly  than 
in  making  oneself  disagreeable  without  any  probability 
of  reformation.  Some  one  asked :  "  What  do  you  say 
about  the  treatment  of  injuries  ? "  The  master  an- 
swered :  "  Eecompense  injury  with  justice,  and  recom- 
pense kindness  with  kindness."  Here  again  he  was  not 
far  from  the  greater  Teacher  on  the  Mount.  "  When 
a  man's  knowledge  is  sufficient  to  attain  and  his  virtue 
is  not  sufficient  to  hold,  whatever  he  may  have  gained 
he  will  lose  again."  One  of  the  favorite  doctrines  of 
Confucius  was  the  superiority  of  the  ancients  to  the 
men  of  his  day.  Said  he :  "  The  high-mindedness  of 
antiquity  showed  itself  in  a  disregard  of  small  things ; 
that  of  the  present  day  shows  itself  in  license.  The 
stern  dignity  of  antiquity  showed  itself  in  grave  re- 
serve ;  that  of  the  present  shows  itself  in  quarrelsome 
perverseness.  The  policy  of  antiquity  showed  itself 
in  straightforwardness ;  that  of  the  present  in  deceit." 
The  following  is  a  saying  worthy  of  Montaigne :  "  Of 
all  people,  girls  and  servants  are  the  most  difficult  to 
behave  to.     If  you  are  familiar  with  them,  they  lose 


164  CONFUCIUS. 


their  humility ;  if  you  maintain  reserve  to  them,  they 
are  discontented." 

Such  are  some  of  the  sayings  of  Confucius,  on  ac- 
count of  which  he  was  regarded  as  the  wisest  of  his 
countrymen;  and  as  his  conduct  was  in  harmony  with 
his  principles,  he  was  justly  revered  as  a  pattern  of 
morality.  The  greatest  virtues  which  he  enjoined  were 
sincerity,  truthfulness,  and  obedience  to  duty  whatever 
may  be  the  sacrifice ;  to  do  right  because  it  is  right  and 
not  because  it  is  expedient ;  filial  piety  extending  to 
absolute  reverence ;  and  an  equal  reverence  for  rulers. 
He  had  no  theology ;  he  confounded  God  with  heaven 
and  earth.  He  says  nothing  about  divine  providence  ; 
he  believed  in  nothing  supernatural.  He  thought 
little  and  said  less  about  a  future  state  of  rewards  and 
punishments.  His  morality  was  elevated,  but  not  su- 
pernal. We  infer  from  his  writings  that  his  age  was 
degenerate  and  corrupt,  but,  as  we  have  already  said, 
his  reproofs  were  gentle.  Blandness  of  speech  and 
manners  was  his  distinguishing  outward  peculiarity; 
and  this  seems  to  characterize  his  nation,  —  whether 
learned  from  him,  or  whether  an  inborn  national  pecu- 
liarity, I  do  not  know.  He  went  through  great  trials 
most  creditably,  but  he  was  no  martyr.  He  constantly 
complained  that  his  teachings  fell  on  listless  ears, 
which  made  him  sad  and  discouraged;  but  he  never 
flagged  in  his  labors  to  improve  his  generation.     He 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  165 

had  no  egotism,  but  great  self-respect,  reminding  us  of 
Michael  Angelo.  He  was  humble  but  full  of  dignity, 
serene  though  distressed,  cheerful  but  not  hilarious. 
Were  he  to  live  among  us  now,  we  should  call  him  a 
perfect  gentleman,  with  aristocratic  sympathies,  but 
more  autocratic  in  his  views  of  government  and  society 
than  aristocratic.  He  seems  to  have  loved  the  people, 
and  was  kind,  even  respectful,  to  everybody.  When 
he  visited  a  school,  it  is  said  that  he  arose  in  quiet 
deference  to  speak  to  the  children,  since  some  of  the 
boys,  he  thought,  would  probably  be  distinguished  and 
powerful  at  no  distant  day.  He  was  also  remarkably 
charitable,  and  put  a  greater  value  on  virtues  and 
abilities  than  upon  riches  and  honors.  Though  courted 
by  princes  he  would  not  serve  them  in  violation  of  his 
self-respect,  asked  no  favors,  and  returned  their  presents. 
If  he  did  not  live  above  the  world,  he  adorned  the 
world.  We  cannot  compare  his  teachings  with  those 
of  Christ ;  they  are  immeasurably  inferior  in  loftiness 
and  spirituality ;  but  they  are  worldly  wise  and  decor- 
ous, and  are  on  an  equality  with  those  of  Solomon  in 
moral  wisdom.  They  are  wonderfully  adapted  to  a 
people  who  are  conservative  of  their  institutions,  and 
who  have  more  respect  for  tradition  than  for  progress. 

The  worship  of  ancestors  is  closely  connected  with 
veneration  for  parental  authority;  and  with  absolute 
obedience  to  parents  is  allied  absolute  obedience  to  the 


166  CONFUCIUS. 


Emperor  as  head  of  the  State.  Hence,  the  writings  of 
Confucius  have  tended  to  cement  the  Chinese  imperial 
power,  —  in  which  fact  we  may  perhaps  find  the  se- 
cret of  his  extraordinary  posthumous  influence.  No 
wonder  that  emperors  and  rulers  have  revered  and 
honored  his  memory,  and  used  the  power  of  the  State 
to  establish  his  doctrines.  Moreover,  his  exaltation 
of  learning  as  a  necessity  for  rulers  has  tended  to  put 
all  the  offices  of  the  realm  into  the  hands  of  scholars. 
There  never  was  a  country  where  scholars  have  been 
and  still  are  so  generally  employed  by  Government. 
And  as  men  of  learning  are  conservative  in  their  sym- 
pathies, so  they  generally  are  fond  of  peace  and  detest 
war.  Hence,  under  the  influence  of  scholars  the  policy 
of  the  Chinese  Government  has  always  been  mild  and 
pacific.  It  is  even  paternal.  It  has  more  similarity  to 
the  governments  of  a  remote  antiquity  than  that  of 
any  existing  nation.  Thus  is  the  influence  of  Confu- 
cius seen  in  the  stability  of  government  and  of  conserv- 
ative institutions,  as  well  as  in  decency  in  the  affairs  of 
life,  and  gentleness  and  courtesy  of  manners.  Abovt 
all  is  his  influence  seen  in  the  employment  of  men  of 
learning  and  character  in  the  afi'airs  of  state  and  in  all 
the  offices  of  government,  as  the  truest  guardians  of 
whatever  tends  to  exalt  a  State  and  make  it  respectable 
and  stable,  if  not  powerful  for  war  or  daring  in  deeds 
of  violence. 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  167 

Confucius  was  essentially  a  statesman  as  well  as  a 
moralist ;  but  his  political  career  was  an  apparent  fail- 
ure, since  few  princes  listened  to  his  instructions.  Yet 
if  he  was  lost  to  his  contemporaries,  he  has  been  pre- 
served by  posterity.  Perhaps  there  never  lived  a  man 
so  worshipped  by  posterity  who  had  so  slight  a  follow- 
ing by  the  men  of  his  own  time,  —  unless  we  liken 
him  to  that  greatest  of  all  Prophets,  who,  being  de- 
spised and  rejected,  is,  and  is  to  be,  the  "  headstone  of 
the  corner  "  in  the  rebuilding  of  humanity.  Confucius 
says  so  little  about  the  subjects  that  interested  the 
people  of  China  that  some  suppose  he  had  no  religion 
at  all.  Nor  did  he  mention  but  once  in  his  writings 
Shang-te,  the  supreme  deity  of  his  remote  ancestors ; 
and  he  deduced  nothing  from  the  worship  of  him. 
And  yet  there  are  expressions  in  his  sayings  which 
seem  to  show  that  he  believed  in  a  supreme  power. 
He  often  spoke  of  Heaven,  and  loved  to  walk  in  the 
heavenly  way.  Heaven  to  him  was  Destiny,  by  the 
power  of  which  the  world  was  created.  By  Heaven 
the  virtuous  are  rewarded,  and  the  guilty  are  punished. 
Out  of  love  for  the  people,  Heaven  appoints  rulers 
to  protect  and  instruct  them.  Prayer  is  unnecessary, 
because  Heaven  does  not  actively  interfere  with  the 
soul  of  man. 

Confucius  was  philosophical  and  consistent  in  the 
all-pervading  principle  by  which  he  insisted  upon  the 


168  CONFUCIUS. 


common  source  of  power  in  government,  —  of  the  State, 
of  the  family,  and  of  one's  self.  Self-knowledge  and 
self-control  he  maintained  to  be  the  fountain  of  all 
personal  virtue  and  attainment  in  performance  of  the 
moral  duties  owed  to  others,  whether  above  or  below 
in  social  standing.  He  supposed  that  all  men  are  bom 
equally  good,  but  that  the  temptations  of  the  world  at 
length  destroy  the  original  rectitude.  The  "superior 
man,"  who  next  to  the  "  sage  "  holds  the  highest  place 
in  the  Confucian  humanity,  conquers  the  evil  in  the 
world,  though  subject  to  infirmities  ;  his  acts  are 
guided  by  the  laws  of  propriety,  and  are  marked  by 
strict  sincerity.  Confucius  admitted  that  he  himself 
had  failed  to  reach  the  level  of  the  superior  man. 
This  admission  may  have  been  the  result  of  his  ex- 
traordinary humility  and  modesty. 

In  '*  The  Great  Learning "  Confucius  lays  down  the 
rules  to  enable  one  to  become  a  superior  man.  The 
foundation  of  his  rules  is  in  the  investigation  of  things, 
or  knowledge,  with  which  virtue  is  indissolubly  con- 
nected, —  as  in  the  ethics  of  Socrates.  He  maintained 
that  no  attainment  can  be  made,  and  no  virtue  can 
remain  untainted,  without  learning.  "Without  this,  be- 
nevolence becomes  folly,  sincerity  recklessness,  straight- 
forwardness rudeness,  and  firmness  foolishness."  But 
mere  accumulation  of  facts  was  not  knowledge,  for 
"  learning  without  thought  is  labor  lost ;  and  thought 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  169 

without  learning  is  perilous."  Complete  wisdom  was 
to  be  found  only  among  the  ancient  sages;  by  no 
mental  endeavor  could  any  man  hope  to  equal  the 
supreme  wisdom  of  Yaou  and  of  Shun,  The  object 
of  learning,  he  said,  should  be  truth ;  and  the  combi- 
nation of  learning  with  a  firm  will,  will  surely  lead  a 
man  to  virtue.  Virtue  must  be  free  from  all  hypocrisy 
and  guile. 

The  next  step  towards  perfection  is  the  cultivation 
of  the,  'person,  —  which  must  begin  with  introspection, 
and  ends  in  harmonious  outward  expression.  Every 
man  must  guard  his  thoughts,  words,  and  actions; 
and  conduct  must  agree  with  words.  By  words  the 
superior  man  directs  others ;  but  in  order  to  do  this 
his  words  must  be  sincere.  It  by  no  means  follows, 
however,  that  virtue  is  the  invariable  concomitant  of 
plausible  speech. 

The  height  of  virtue  is  filial  piety ;  for  this  is  con- 
nected indissolubly  with  loyalty  to  the  sovereign,  who 
is  the  father  of  his  people  and  the  preserver  of  the 
State.  Loyalty  to  the  sovereign  is  synonymous  with 
duty,  and  is  outwardly  shown  by  obedience.  Next  to 
parents,  all  superiors  should  be  the  object  of  reverence. 
This  reverence,  it  is  true,  should  be  reciprocal ;  a  sov- 
ereign forfeits  all  right  to  reverence  and  obedience 
when  he  ceases  to  be  a  minister  of  good.  But  then, 
only  the  man  who  has  developed  virtues  in  himself  is 


170  CONFUCIUS. 


ooneidered  competent  to  rule  a  family  or  a  State ;  for 
the  same  virtues  which  enable  a  man  to  rule  the  one, 
will  enable  him  to  rule  the  other.  No  man  can  teach 
others  who  cannot  teach  his  own  family.  The  greatest 
stress,  as  we  have  seen,  is  laid  by  Confucius  on  filial 
piety,  which  consists  in  obedience  to  authority,  —  in 
serving  parents  according  to  propriety,  that  is,  with 
the  deepest  affection,  and  the  father  of  the  State  with 
loyalty.  But  while  it  is  incumbent  on  a  son  to  obey 
the  wishes  of  his  parents,  it  is  also  a  part  of  his  duty 
to  remonstrate  with  them  should  they  act  contrary  to 
the  rules  of  propriety.  All  remonstrances,  however, 
must  be  made  humbly.  Should  these  remonstrances 
fail,  the  son  must  mourn  in  silence  the  obduracy  of 
the  parents.  He  carried  the  obligations  of  filial  piety 
so  far  as  to  teach  that  a  son  should  conceal  the  im- 
morality of  a  father,  forgetting  the  distinction  of  right 
and  wrong.  Brotherly  love  is  the  sequel  of  fiHal  piety. 
"  Happy,"  says  he,  "  is  the  union  with  wife  and  chil- 
dren ;  it  is  like  the  music  of  lutes  and  harps.  The  love 
which  binds  brother  to  brother  is  second  only  to  that 
which  is  due  from  children  to  parents.  It  consists  in 
mutual  friendship,  joyful  harmony,  and  dutiful  obedi- 
ence on  the  part  of  the  younger  to  the  elder  brothers." 

While  obedience  is  exacted  to  an  elder  brother  and 
to  parents,  Confucius  said  but  little  respecting  the  ties 
which  should  bind  husband  and  wife.     He  had  but 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  171 

little  respect  for  woman,  and  was  divorced  from  his 
wife  after  living  with  her  for  a  year.  He  looked  on 
women  as  every  way  inferior  to  men,  and  only  to  be 
endured  as  necessary  evils.  It  was  not  until  a  woman 
became  a  mother,  that  she  was  treated  with  respect  in 
China.  Hence,  according  to  Confucius,  the  great  object 
of  marriage  is  to  increase  the  family,  especially  to  give 
birth  to  sons.  Women  could  be  lawfully  and  properly 
divorced  who  had  no  children,  —  which  put  women 
completely  in  the  power  of  men,  and  reduced  them  to 
the  condition  of  slaves.  The  failure  to  recognize  the 
sanctity  of  marriage  is  the  great  blot  on  the  system  of 
Confucius  as  a  scheme  of  morals. 

But  the  sage  exalts  friendship.  Everybody,  from 
the  Emperor  downward,  must  have  friends;  and  the 
best  friends  are  those  allied  by  ties  of  blood.  "  Friends," 
said  he,  "  are  wealth  to  the  poor,  strength  to  the  weak, 
and  medicine  to  the  sick."  One  of  the  strongest  bonds 
to  friendship  is  literature  and  literary  exertion.  Men 
are  enjoined  by  Confucius  to  make  friends  among  the 
most  virtuous  of  scholars,  even  as  they  are  enjoined 
to  take  service  under  the  most  worthy  of  great  officers. 
In  the  intercourse  of  friends,  the  most  unbounded  sin- 
cerity and  frankness  is  imperatively  enjoined.  "He 
who  is  not  trusted  by  his  friends  will  not  gain  the  con- 
fidence of  the  sovereign,  and  he  who  is  not  obedient  to 
parents  will  not  be  trusted  by  friends." 

TOL.  I.  — 10 


172  CONFUCIUS. 


Everything  is  subordinated  to  the  State ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  family,  friends,  culture,  virtue,  —  the 
good  of  the  people,  —  is  the  main  object  of  good  gov- 
ernment. "  No  virtue,"  said  Emperor  Kuh,  2435  B.  c, 
"  is  higher  than  love  to  all  men,  and  there  is  no  loftier 
aim  in  government  than  to  profit  all  men."  When 
he  was  asked  what  should  be  done  for  the  people,  he 
replied,  "Enrich  them;"  and  when  asked  what  more 
should  be  done,  he  replied,  "  Teach  them."  On  these 
two  principles  the  whole  philosophy  of  the  sage  rested, 
—  the  temporal  welfare  of  the  people,  and  their  edu- 
cation. He  laid  great  stress  on  knowledge,  as  leading 
to  virtue ;  and  on  virtue,  as  leading  to  prosperity.  He 
made  the  profession  of  a  teacher  the  most  honorable 
calHng  to  which  a  citizen  could  aspire.  He  himself  was 
a  teacher.  All  sages  are  teachers,  though  all  teachers 
are  not  sages. 

Confucius  enlarged  upon  the  necessity  of  having 
good  men  in  office.  The  officials  of  his  day  excited 
his  contempt,  and  reciprocally  scorned  his  teachings. 
It  was  in  contrast  to  these  officials  that  he  painted  the 
ideal  times  of  Kings  "Wan  and  Woo.  The  two  motive- 
powers  of  government,  according  to  Confucius,  are 
righteousness  and  the  observance  of  ceremonies.  Eight- 
eousness  is  the  law  of  the  world,  as  ceremonies  form 
a  rule  to  the  heart.  What  he  meant  by  ceremonies 
wa8  riles  of  propriety,  intended  to  keep  all  unruly 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  173 

passions  in  check,  and  produce  a  reverential  manner 
among  all  classes.  Doubtless  he  over-estimated  the 
force  of  example,  since  there  are  men  in  every  coun- 
try and  community  who  will  be  lawless  and  reckless, 
in  spite  of  the  best  models  of  character  and  conduct. 

The  ruling  desire  of  Confucius  was  to  make  the 
whole  empire  peaceful  and  happy.  The  welfare  of 
the  people,  the  right  government  of  the  State,  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  empire  were  the  main  objects  of 
his  solicitude.  As  conducive  to  these,  he  touched  on 
many  other  things  incidentally,  —  such  as  the  encour- 
agement of  music,  of  which  he  was  very  fond.  He 
himself  summed  up  the  outcome  of  his  rules  for  con- 
duct in  this  prohibitive  form :  "  Do  not  unto  others 
that  which  you  would  not  have  them  do  to  you." 
Here  we  have  the  negative  side  of  the  positive 
"golden  rule."  Eeciprocity,  and  that  alone,  was  his 
law  of  life.  He  does  not  inculcate  forgiveness  of 
injuries,  but  exacts  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  an  eye 
for  an  eye. 

As  to  his  own  personal  character,  it  was  nearly 
faultless.  His  humility  and  patience  were  alike  re- 
markable, and  his  sincerity  and  candor  were  as  marked 
as  his  humility.  He  was  the  most  learned  man  in 
the  empire,  yet  lamented  the  deficiency  of  his  know- 
ledge. He  even  disclaimed  the  qualities  of  the  supe- 
rior man,  much  more  those  of  the  sage.     "  I  am,"  said 


174  CONFUCIUS. 


he,  "  not  virtuous  enough  to  be  free  from  cares,  nor 
wise  enough  to  be  free  from  anxieties,  nor  bold  enough 
to  be  free  from  fear."  He  was  always  ready  to  serve 
his  sovereign  or  the  State ;  but  he  neither  grasped  ofl&ce, 
nor  put  forward  his  own  merits,  nor  sought  to  advance 
his  own  interests.  He  was  grave,  generous,  tolerant, 
and  sincere.  He  carried  into  practice  all  the  rules 
he  taught.  Poverty  was  his  lot  in  life,  but  he  never 
repined  at  the  absence  of  wealth,  or  lost  the  severe 
dignity  which  is  ever  to  be  associated  with  wisdom 
and  the  force  of  personal  character.  Indeed,  his 
greatness  was  in  his  character  rather  than  in  his 
genius;  and  yet  I  think  his  genius  has  been  under- 
rated. His  greatness  is  seen  in  the  profound  devo- 
tion of  his  followers  to  him,  however  lofty  their  merits 
or  exalted  their  rank.  No  one  ever  disputed  his  in- 
fluence and  fame ;  and  his  moral  excellence  shines 
all  the  brighter  in  view  of  the  troublous  times  in 
which  he  lived,  when  warriors  occupied  the  stage,  and 
men  of  letters  were  driven  behind  the  scenes. 

The  literary  labors  of  Confucius  were  very  great, 
since  he  made  the  whole  classical  literature  of  China 
accessible  to  his  countrymen.  The  fame  of  all  preced- 
ing writers  is  merged  in  his  own  renown.  His  works 
have  had  the  highest  authority  for  more  than  two  thou- 
sand years.  They  have  been  regarded  as  the  exponents 
of  supreme  wisdom,  and  adopted  as  text-books  by  all 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  176 

scholars  and  in  all  schools  in  that  vast  empire,  which 
includes  one-fourth  of  the  human  race.  To  all  edu- 
cated men  the  "  Book  of  Changes "  (Yih-King),  the 
"Book  of  Poetry"  (She-King),  the  "Book  of  History" 
(Shoo-King),  the  "Book  of  Eites "  (Le-King),  the 
"Great  Learning"  (Ta-heo),  showing  the  parental  es- 
sence of  all  government,  the  "  Doctriae  of  the  Mean  " 
(Chung-yung),  teaching  the  "  golden  mean  "  of  conduct, 
and  the  "Confucian  Analects"  (Lun-yu),' recording  his 
conversations,  are  supreme  authorities ;  to  which  must 
be  added  the  Works  of  Mencius,  the  greatest  of  his 
disciples.  There  is  no  record  of  any  books  that  have 
exacted  such  supreme  reverence  in  any  nation  as  the 
Works  of  Confucius,  except  the  Koran  of  the  Moham- 
medans, the  Book  of  the  Law  among  the  Hebrews,  and 
the  Bible  among  the  Christians.  What  an  influence  for 
one  man  to  have  exerted  on  subsequent  ages,  who  laid 
no  claim  to  divinity  or  even  originahty,  —  recognized 
as  a  man,  worshipped  as  a  god ! 

No  sooner  had  the  sun  of  Confucius  set  under  a 
cloud  (since  sovereigns  and  princes  had  neglected  if 
they  had  not  scorned  his  precepts),  than  his  memory 
and  principles  were  duly  honored.  But  it  was  not 
until  the  accession  of  the  Han  dynasty,  206  B.  c,  that 
the  reigning  emperor  collected  the  scattered  writings 
of  the  sage,  and  exerted  his  vast  power  to  secure  the 
study  of  them  throughout  the  schools  of  China.     It 


176  CONFUCIUS. 


must  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  hostile  emperor  of  the 
preceding  djrnasty  had  ordered  the  books  of  Confucius 
to  be  burned;  but  they  were  secreted  by  his  faithful 
admirers  in  the  walls  of  houses  and  beneath  the 
ground.  Succeeding  emperors  heaped  additional  hon- 
ors on  the  memory  of  the  sage,  and  in  the  early  part 
of  the  sixteenth  century  an  emperor  of  the  Ming 
dynasty  gave  him  the  title  which  he  at  present  bears 
in  China,  —  "  The  perfect  sage,  the  ancient  teacher, 
Confucius."  No  higher  title  could  be  conferred  upon 
him  in  a  land  where  to  be  "  ancient "  is  to  be  revered. 
For  more  than  twelve  hundred  years  temples  have 
been  erected  to  his  honor,  and  his  worship  has  been 
universal  throughout  the  empire.  His  maxims  of  mor- 
ality have  appealed  to  human  consciousness  in  every 
succeeding  generation,  and  carry  as  much  weight  to- 
day as  they  did  when  the  Han  dynasty  made  them  the 
standard  of  human  wisdom.  They  were  especially 
adapted  to  the  Chinese  intellect,  which  although 
shrewd  and  ingenious  is  phlegmatic,  unspeculative, 
matter-of-fact,  and  unspiritual.  Moreover,  as  we  have 
said,  it  was  to  the  interest  of  rulers  to  support  his  doc- 
trines, from  the  constant  exhortations  to  loyalty  which 
Confucius  enjoined.  And  yet  there  is  in  his  precepts 
a  democratic  influence  also,  since  he  recognized  no  other 
titles  or  ranks  but  such  as  are  won  by  personal  merit, 
—  thus  opening  every  office  in  the  State  to  the  learned. 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  177 

whatever  their  original  social  rank.  The  great  politi- 
cal truth  that  the  welfare  of  the  people  is  the  first  duty 
and  highest  aim  of  rulers,  has  endeared  the  memory 
of  the  sage  to  the  unnumbered  millions  who  toil  upon 
the  scantiest  means  of  subsistence  that  have  been 
known  in  any  nation's  history. 

This  essay  on  the  religion  of  the  Chinese  would  be 
incomplete  without  some  allusion  to  one  of  the  con- 
temporaries of  Confucius,  who  spiritually  and  intel- 
lectually was  probably  his  superior,  and  to  whom 
even  Confucius  paid  extraordinary  deference.  This 
man  was  called  Lao-tse,  a  recluse  and  philosopher, 
who  was  already  an  old  man  when  Confucius  began 
his  travels.  He  was  the  founder  of  Tao-tze,  a  kind 
of  rationalism,  which  at  present  has  millions  of 
adherents  in  China.  This  old  philosopher  did  not 
receive  Confucius  very  graciously,  since  the  younger 
man  declared  nothing  new,  only  wishing  to  revive  the 
teachings  of  ancient  sages,  while  he  himself  was  a 
great  awakener  of  thought.  He  was,  like  Confucius, 
a  politico-ethical  teacher,  but  unlike  him  sought  to 
lead  people  back  to  a  state  of  primitive  society  before 
forms  and  regulations  existed.  He  held  that  man's 
nature  was  good,  and  that  primitive  pleasures  and 
virtues  were  better  than  worldly  wisdom.  He  main- 
tained that  spiritual  weapons  cannot  be  formed  by 
laws  and  regulations,  and  that  prohibiting  enactments 


178  CONFUCIUS. 


tended  to  increase  the  evils  they  were  meant  to 
avert.  While  this  great  and  profound  man  was  in 
some  respects  superior  to  Confucius,  his  influence  has 
been  most  seen  on  the  inferior  people  of  China.  Tao- 
ism rivals  Buddhism  as  the  religion  of  the  lower 
classes,  and  Taoism  combined  with  Buddhism  has 
more  adherents  than  Confucianism.  But  the  wise, 
the  mighty,  and  the  noble  still  cling  to  Confucius  as 
the  greatest  man  whom  China  has  produced. 

Of  spiritual  religion,  indeed,  the  lower  millions  of 
Chinese  have  now  but  little  conception  ;  their  nearest 
approach  to  any  supernaturalism  is  the  worship  of 
deceased  ancestors,  and  their  religious  observances  are 
the  grossest  formalism.  But  as  a  practical  system 
of  morals  in  the  days  of  its  early  establishment,  the 
religion  of  Confucius  ranks  very  high  among  the  best 
developments  of  Paganism.  Certainly  no  man  ever 
had  a  deeper  knowledge  of  his  countrymen  than  he, 
or  adapted  his  doctrines  to  the  peculiar  needs  of  their 
social  organism  with  such  amazing  tact. 

It  is  a  remarkable  thing  that  all  the  religions  of  an- 
tiquity have  practically  passed  away,  with  their  cities 
and  empires,  except  among  the  Hindus  and  Chinese ; 
and  it  is  doubtful  if  these  religions  can  withstand 
the  changes  which  foreign  conquest  and  Christian  mis- 
sionary enterprise  and  civilization  are  producing.  In 
the  East  the  old  religions  gave  place  to  Mohamedan- 


SAGE  AND  MORALIST.  179 

ism,  as  in  the  West  they  disappeared  before  the 
power  of  Christianity.  And  these  conquering  reli- 
gions retain  and  extend  their  hold  upon  the  human 
mind  and  human  affections  by  reason  of  their  funda- 
mental principles,  —  the  fatherhood  of  a  personal  God, 
and  the  brotherhood  of  universal  man.  With  the 
ideas  prevalent  among  all  sects  that  God  is  not  only 
supreme  in  power,  but  benevolent  in  his  providence, 
and  that  every  man  has  claims  and  rights  which  can- 
not be  set  aside  by  kings  or  rulers  or  priests, — 
nations  must  indefinitely  advance  in  virtue  and  hap- 
piness, as  they  receive  and  live  by  the  inspiration  of 
this  elevating  faith. 


AUTHORITIES. 

Religion  in  China,  by  Joseph  Edkins,  D.D. ;  Rawlinson's  Re- 
ligions of  the  Ancient  World ;  Freeman  Clarke's  Ten  Great  Reli- 
gions ;  Johnson's  Oriental  Religions ;  Davis's  Chinese ;  Nevins's 
China  and  the  Chinese ;  Giles's  Chinese  Sketches ;  Lenormant's 
Ancient  History  of  the  East ;  Hue's  Christianity  in  China ;  Legge's 
Prolegomena  to  the  Shoo-King ;  Lecorate's  China ;  Dr.  S.  Wells 
Williams's  Middle  Kingdom;  China,  by  Professor  Douglas;  The 
Religions  of  China,  by  James  Legge. 


ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

SEEKING  AFTER  TRUTH. 


ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 


SEEKING  AFTER  TRUTH. 

T  T  7HATEVEE  may  be  said  of  the  inferiority  of 
^  *  the  ancients  to  the  moderns  in  natural  and 
mechanical  science,  which  no  one  is  disposed  to  ques- 
tion, or  even  in  the  realm  of  literature,  which  may  be 
questioned,  there  was  one  department  of  knowledge  to 
which  we  have  added  nothing  of  consequence.  In  the 
realm  of  art  they  were  our  equals,  and  probably  our 
superiors;  in  philosophy,  they  carried  logical  deduc- 
tion to  its  utmost  limit.  They  advanced  from  a 
few  crude  speculations  on  material  phenomena  to  an 
analysis  of  all  the  powers  of  the  mind,  and  finally  to 
the  establishment  of  ethical  principles  which  even 
Christianity  did  not  supersede. 

The  progress  of  philosophy  from  Thales  to  Plato  is 
the  most  stupendous  triumph  of  the  human  intellect. 
The  reason  of  man  soared  to  the  loftiest  flights 
that  it  has  ever  attained.  It  cast  its  searching  eye 
into  the  most  abstruse  inquiries   which  ever  tasked 


184  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

the  famous  minds  of  the  world.  It  exhausted  all  the 
subjects  which  dialectical  subtlety  ever  raised.  It 
originated  and  carried  out  the  boldest  speculations 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  its  future  exist- 
ence. It  established  important  psychological  truths 
and  created  a  method  for  the  solution  of  abstruse 
questions.  It  went  on  from  point  to  point,  until 
all  the  faculties  of  the  mind  were  severely  ana- 
lyzed, and  all  its  operations  were  subjected  to  a  rigid 
method.  The  Romans  never  added  a  single  principle 
to  the  philosophy  which  the  Greeks  elaborated;  the 
ingenious  scholastics  of  the  Middle  Ages  merely  repro- 
duced Greek  ideas ;  and  even  the  profound  and  patient 
Germans  have  gone  round  in  the  same  circles  that 
Plato  and  Aristotle  marked  out  more  than  two  thou- 
sand years  ago.  Only  the  Brahmans  of  India  have 
equalled  them  in  intellectual  subtilty  and  acumen.  It 
was  Greek  philosophy  in  which  noble  Roman  youths 
were  educated ;  and  hence,  as  it  was  expounded  by  a 
Cicero,  a  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  an  Epictetus,  it  was  as 
much  the  inheritance  of  the  Romans  as  it  was  of  the 
Greeks  themselves,  after  Grecian  liberties  were  swept 
away  and  Greek  cities  became  a  part  of  the  Roman 
empire.  The  Romans  learned  what  the  Greeks  created 
and  taught;  and  philosophy,  as  well  as  art,  became 
identified  with  the  civilization  which  extended  from 
the  Rhine  and  the  Po  to  the  Nile  and  the  Tigris. 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  185 

Greek  philosophy  was  one  of  the  distinctive  features 
of  ancient  civilization  long  after  the  Greeks  had  ceased 
to  speculate  on  the  laws  of  mind  or  the  nature  of  the 
soul,  on  the  existence  of  God  or  future  rewards  and 
punishments.  Although  it  was  purely  Grecian  in  its 
origin  and  development,  it  became  one  of  the  grand 
ornaments  of  the  Eoman  schools.  The  Eomans  did 
not  originate  medicine,  but  Galen  was  one  of  its 
greatest  lights ;  they  did  not  invent  the  hexameter 
verse,  but  Virgil  sang  to  its  measure ;  they  did  not 
create  Ionic  capitals,  but  their  cities  were  ornamented 
with  marble  temples  on  the  same  principles  as  those 
which  called  out  the  admiration  of  Pericles.  So,  if 
they  did  not  originate  philosophy,  and  generally  had 
but  little  taste  for  it,  still  its  truths  were  systematized 
and  explained  by  Cicero,  and  formed  no  small  accession 
to  the  treasures  with  which  cultivated  intellects  sought 
everywhere  to  be  enriched.  It  formed  an  essential  part 
of  the  intellectual  wealth  of  the  civilized  world,  when 
civilization  could  not  prevent  the  world  from  falling 
into  decay  and  ruin.  And  as  it  was  the  noblest  tri- 
umph which  the  human  mind,  under  Pagan  influences, 
ever  achieved,  so  it  was  followed  by  the  most  degrading 
imbecility  into  which  man,  in  civilized  countries,  was 
ever  allowed  to  fall.  Philosophy,  like  art,  Hke  litera- 
ture, like  science,  arose,  shone,  grew  dim,  and  passed 
away,  leaving  the  world  in  night.     Why  was  so  bright 


186  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

a  glory  followed  by  so  dismal  a  shame  ?     What  a  com- 
ment is  this  on  the  greatness  and  littleness  of  man  I 

In  all  probability  the  development  of  Greek  philoso- 
phy originated  with  the  Ionian  Sophoi,  though  many 
suppose  it  was  derived  from  the  East.  It  is  question- 
able whether  the  Oriental  nations  had  any  philosophy 
distinct  from  reUgion.  The  Germans  are  fond  of  tracing 
resemblances  in  the  early  speculations  of  the  Greeks  to 
the  systems  which  prevailed  in  Asia  from  a  very  remote 
antiquity.  Gladish  sees  in  the  Pythagorean  system  an 
adoption  of  Chinese  doctrines ;  in  the  Heraclitic  sys- 
tem, the  influence  of  Persia;  in  the  Empedoclean, 
Egyptian  speculations ;  and  in  the  Anaxagorean,  the 
Jewish  creeds.  But  the  Orientals  had  theogonies,  not 
philosophies.  The  Indian  speculations  aim  at  an  expo- 
sition of  ancient  revelation.  They  profess  to  liberate 
the  soul  from  the  evils  of  mortal  Ufe,  —  to  arrive  at 
eternal  beatitudes.  But  the  state  of  perfectibility 
could  be  reached  only  by  religious  ceremonial  observ- 
ances and  devout  contemplation.  The  Indian  systems 
do  not  disdain  logical  discussions,  or  a  search  after  the 
principles  of  which  the  universe  is  composed ;  and 
hence  we  find  great  refinements  in  sophistry,  and  a 
wonderful  subtilty  of  logical  discussion,  though  these 
are  directed  to  unattainable  ends,  —  to  the  connection 
of  good  with  evil,  and  the  union  of  the  Supreme  with 
Nature.     Nothing  seemed  to  come  out  of  these  specula- 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  187 

tions  but  an  occasional  elevation  of  mind  among  the 
learned,  and  a  profound  conviction  of  the  misery  of 
man  and  the  obstacles  to  his  perfection.  The  Greeks, 
starting  from  physical  phenomena,  went  on  in  succes- 
sive series  of  inquiries,  elevating  themselves  above 
matter,  above  experience,  even  to  the  loftiest  abstrac- 
tions, until  they  classified  the  laws  of  thought.  It  is 
curious  how  speculation  led  to  demonstration,  and  how 
inquiries  into  the  world  of  matter  prepared  the  way  for 
the  solution  of  intellectual  phenomena.  Philosophy 
kept  pace  with  geometry,  and  those  who  observed 
Nature  also  gloried  in  abstruse  calculations.  Philoso- 
phy and  mathematics  seem  to  have  been  allied  with 
the  worship  of  art  among  the  same  men,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  say  which  more  distinguished  them,  —  aes- 
thetic culture  or  power  of  abstruse  reasoning. 

We  do  not  read  of  any  remarkable  philosophical 
inquirer  until  Thales  arose,  the  first  of  the  Ionian 
school.  He  was  born  at  Miletus,  a  Greek  colony  in 
Asia  Minor,  about  the  year  636  B.C.,  when  Ancus 
Martins  was  king  of  Eome,  and  Josiah  reigned  at  Jeru- 
salem. He  has  left  no  writings  behind  him,  but  was 
numbered  as  one  of  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece  on 
account  of  his  political  sagacity  and  wisdom  in  public 
affairs.  I  do  not  here  speak  of  his  astronomical  and 
geometrical  labors,  which  were  great,  and  which  have 
left  their  mark  even  upon  our  own  daily  life,  —  as, 

VOL.  I.  — 11 


188  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 


for  instance,  in  the  fact  that  he  was  the  first  to  have 
divided  the  year  into    three  hundred   and  sixtj-five 

days. 

"And  he,  'tis  said,  did  first  compute  the  stars 
Which  beam  in  Charles's  wain,  and  guide  the  bark 
Of  the  Phoeoecian  sailor  o'er  the  sea." 

He  is  celebrated  also  for  practical  wisdom.  "  Know 
thyself,"  is  one  of  his  remarkable  sayings.  The  chief 
claim  of  Thales  to  a  lofty  rank  among  sages,  however, 
is  that  he  was  the  first  who  attempted  a  logical  solu- 
tion of  material  phenomena,  without  resorting  to  myth- 
ical representations.  Thales  felt  that  there  was  a  grand 
question  to  be  answered  relative  to  the  beginning  of 
things.  "  Philosophy,"  it  has  been  well  said,  "  may  be 
a  history  of  errors,  but  not  of  Jollies."  It  was  not  a 
folly,  in  a  rude  age,  to  speculate  on  the  first  or  funda- 
mental principle  of  things.  Thales  looked  around  him 
upon  Nature,  upon  the  sea  and  earth  and  sky,  and 
concluded  that  water  or  moisture  was  the  vital  prin- 
ciple. He  felt  it  in  the  air,  he  saw  it  in  the  clouds 
above  and  in  the  ground  beneath  his  feet.  He  saw 
that  plants  were  sustained  by  rain  and  by  the  dew, 
that  neither  animal  nor  man  could  live  without  water, 
and  that  to  fishes  it  was  the  native  element.  "What 
more  important  or  vital  than  water?  It  was  the 
prima  materia,  the  apxriy  the  beginning  of  all  things, 
— the  origin  of  the  world.     How  so  crude  a  specula- 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  189 

tion  could  have  been  maintained  by  so  wise  a  man  it 
is  difficult  to  conjecture.  It  is  not,  however,  the 
cause  which  he  assigns  for  tlie  beginning  of  things 
which  is  noteworthy,  so  much  as  the  fact  that  his 
mind  was  directed  to  any  solution  of  questions  per- 
taining to  the  origin  of  the  universe.  It  was  these 
questions,  and  the  solution  of  them,  which  marked  the 
Ionian  philosophers,  and  which  showed  the  inquiring 
nature  of  their  minds.  What  is  the  great  first  cause  of 
all  things  ?  Thales  saw  it  in  one  of  the  four  elements 
of  Nature  as  the  ancients  divided  them ;  and  this  is 
the  earliest  recorded  theory  among  the  Greeks  of  the 
origin  of  the  world.  It  is  an  induction  from  one  of 
the  phenomena  of  animated  Nature, — the  nutrition  and 
production  of  a  seed.  He  regarded  the  entire  world  in 
the  light  of  a  living  being  gradually  maturing  and 
forming  itself  from  an  imperfect  seed-state,  which  was 
of  a  moist  nature.  This  moisture  endues  the  universe 
with  vitality.  The  world,  he  thought,  was  full  of  gods, 
but  they  had  their  origin  in  water.  He  had  no  con- 
ception of  God  as  intelligence,  or  as  a  creative  power. 
He  had  a  great  and  inquiring  mind,  but  it  gave  him 
no  knowledge  of  a  spiritual,  controlling,  and  personal 
deity. 

Anaximenes,  the  disciple  of  Thales,  pursued  his 
master's  inquiries  and  adopted  his  method.  He  also 
was  bom  in  Miletus,  but  at  what  time  is  unknown,  — 


190  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

probably  500  B.  c.  Like  Thales,  he  held  to  the  eternity 
of  matter.  Like  him,  he  disbelieved  in  the  existence 
of  anything  immaterial,  for  even  a  human  soul  is 
formed  out  of  matter.  He,  too,  speculated  on  the 
origin  of  the  universe,  but  thought  that  air,  not 
water,  was  the  primal  cause.  This  element  seems 
to  be  universal.  We  breathe  it ;  all  things  are  sus- 
tained by  it.  It  is  Life,  —  that  is,  pregnant  with 
vital  energy,  and  capable  of  infinite  transmutations. 
All  things  are  produced  by  it;  all  is  again  resolved 
into  it ;  it  supports  all  things ;  it  surrounds  the 
world ;  it  has  infinitude ;  it  has  eternal  motion. 
Thus  did  this  philosopher  reason,  comparing  the 
world  with  our  own  living  existence,  —  which  he 
took  to  be  air,  —  an  imperishable  principle  of  life. 
He  thus  advanced  a  step  beyond  Thales,  since  he 
regarded  the  world  not  after  the  analogy  of  an  im- 
perfect seed-state,  but  after  that  of  the  highest  con- 
dition of  life,  —  the  human  soul.  And  he  attempted 
to  refer  to  one  general  law  all  the  transformations  of 
the  first  simple  substance  into  its  successive  states, 
in  that  the  cause  of  change  is  the  eternal  motion 
of  the  air. 

Diogenes  of  Apollonia,  in  Crete,  one  of  the  disciples 
of  Anaximenes,  born  500  b.  c,  also  believed  that  air 
was  the  principle  of  the  universe,  but  he  imputed  to 
it  an  intellectual  energy,  yet  without  recognizing  any 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  191 

distinction  between  mind  and  matter.  He  made  air 
and  the  soul  identical.  "For,"  says  he,  "man  and 
all  other  animals  breathe  and  live  by  means  of  the 
air,  and  therein  consists  their  soul."  And  as  it  is 
the  primary  being  from  which  all  is  derived,  it  is 
necessarily  an  eternal  and  imperishable  body;  but  as 
soul  it  is  also  endued  with  consciousness.  Diogenes 
thus  refers  the  origin  of  the  world  to  an  intelligent 
being,  —  to  a  soul  which  knows  and  vivifies.  Anaxi- 
menes  regarded  air  as  having  life ;  Diogenes  saw  in 
it  also  intelligence.  Thus  philosophy  advanced  step 
by  st^p,  though  still  groping  in  the  dark ;  for  the 
origin  of  all  things,  according  to  Diogenes,  must  exist 
in  intelligence.  According  to  Diogenes  Laertius,  he 
said :  "  It  appears  to  me  that  he  who  begins  any 
treatise  ought  to  lay  down  principles  about  which 
there  can  be  no  dispute." 

Heraclitus  of  Ephesus,  classed  by  Eitter  among  the 
Ionian  philosophers,  was  born  503  B.  c.  Like  others 
of  his  school,  he  sought  a  physical  ground  for  all  phe- 
nomena. The  elemental  principle  he  regarded  asjire, 
since  all  things  are  convertible  into  it.  In  one  of  its 
modifications  this  fire,  or  fluid,  self-kindled,  permeating 
everything  as  the  soul  or  principle  of  life,  is  endowed 
with  intelligence  and  powers  of  ceaseless  activity.  "  If 
Anaximenes,"  says  Maurice,  not  very  clearly,  "  discov- 
ered that  he  had  within  him  a  power  and  principle 


192  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

which  ruled  over  all  the  acts  and  functions  of  his 
bodily  frame,  Heraclitus  found  that  there  was  life 
within  him  which  he  could  not  call  his  own,  and 
yet  it  was,  in  the  very  highest  sense,  himself,  so  that 
without  it  he  would  have  been  a  poor,  helpless,  isolated 
creature,  —  a  universal  life  which  connected  him  with 
his  fellow-men,  with  the  absolute  source  and  original 
fountain  of  life.  .  .  .  He  proclaimed  the  absolute  vital- 
ity of  Nature,  the  endless  change  of  matter,  the  muta- 
bility and  perishability  of  all  individual  things  in 
contrast  with  the  eternal  Being,  —  the  supreme  har- 
mony which  rules  over  all."  To  trace  the  divine 
energy  of  life  in  all  things  was  the  general  problem 
of  the  philosophy  of  Heraclitus,  and  this  spirit  was 
akin  to  the  pantheism  of  the  East.  But  he  was  one 
of  the  greatest  speculative  intellects  that  preceded 
Plato,  and  of  aU  the  physical  theorists  arrived  near- 
est to  spiritual  truth.  He  taught  the  germs  of  what 
was  afterward  more  completely  developed.  "  From 
his  theory  of  perpetual  fluxion,"  says  Archer  Butler, 
"  Plato  derived  the  necessity  of  seeking  a  stable  basis 
for  the  universal  system  in  his  world  of  ideas." 
Heraclitus  was,  however,  an  obscure  writer,  and  more- 
over cynical  and  arrogant. 

Anaxagoras,  the  most  famous  of  the  Ionian  philoso- 
phers, was  bom  500  b.  c,  and  belonged  to  a  rich  and 
noble  family.      Regarding  philosophy  as  the  noblest 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  193 

pursuit  of  earth,  he  abandoned  his  inheritance  for  the 
study  of  Nature.  He  went  to  Athens  in  the  most 
brilliant  period  of  her  history,  and  had  Pericles,  Eu- 
ripides, and  Socrates  for  pupils.  He  taught  that  the 
great  moving  force  of  Nature  was  intellect  (I'oy?).  In- 
telligence was  the  cause  of  the  world  and  of  order,  and 
mind  was  the  principle  of  motion  ;  yet  this  intelligence 
was  not  a  moral  intelligence,  but  simply  the  primum 
mobile,  —  the  all-knowing  motive  force  by  which  the 
order  of  Nature  is  effected.  He  thus  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  a  new  system,  under  which  the  Attic  philoso- 
phers sought  to  explain  Nature,  by  regarding  as  the 
cause  of  all  things,  not  matter  in  its  different  ele- 
ments, but  rather  mind,  thought,  intelligence,  which 
both  knows  and  acts, —  a  grand  conception,  unrivalled 
in  ancient  speculation.  This  explanation  of  material 
phenomena  by  intellectual  causes  was  the  peculiar 
merit  of  Anaxagoras,  and  places  him  in  a  very  high 
rank  among  the  thinkers  of  the  world.  Moreover, 
he  recognized  the  reason  as  the  only  faculty  by 
which  we  become  cognizant  of  truth,  the  senses  being 
too  weak  to  discover  the  real  component  particles  of 
things.  Like  all  the  great  inquirers,  he  was  impressed 
with  the  limited  degree  of  positive  knowledge  compared 
with  what  there  is  to  be  learned.  "  Nothing,"  says  he, 
"  can  be  known ;  nothing  is  certain ;  sense  is  limited, 
intellect  is  weak,  life  is  short,"  —  the  complaint,  not  of 


194  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

a  sceptic,  but  of  a  man  overwhelmed  with  the  sense 
of  his  incapacity  to  solve  the  problems  which  arose 
before  his  active  mind.  Anaxagoras  thought  that  this 
spirit  {vov^)  gave  to  all  those  material  atoms  which  in 
the  beginning  of  the  world  lay  in  disorder  the  impulse 
by  which  they  took  the  forms  of  individual  things,  and 
that  this  impulse  was  given  in  a  circular  direction. 
Hence  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  even  the 
air,  are  constantly  moving  in  a  circle. 

In  the  mean  time  another  sect  of  philosophers  had 
arisen,  who,  like  the  lonians,  sought  to  explain  Na- 
ture, but  by  a  different  method.  Anaximander,  bom 
610  B.  c,  was  one  of  the  original  mathematicians  of 
Greece,  yet,  like  Pythagoras  and  Thales,  speculated  on 
the  beginning  of  things.  His  principle  was  that  Tlie 
Infinite  is  the  origin  of  all  things.  He  used  the  word 
ap-)(fi  (beginning)  to  denote  the  material  out  of  which 
all  things  were  formed,  as  the  Everlasting,  the  Divine. 
The  idea  of  elevating  an  abstraction  into  a  great  first 
cause  was  certainly  a  long  stride  in  philosophic  general- 
ization to  be  taken  at  that  age  of  the  world,  following 
as  it  did  so  immediately  upon  such  partial  and  childish 
ideas  as  that  any  single  one  of  the  familiar  "  elements  " 
could  be  the  primal  cause  of  all  things.  It  seems  al- 
most like  the  speculations  of  our  own  time,  when  phi- 
losophers seek  to  find  the  first  cause  in  impersonal 
Force,  or  infinite  Energy.     Yet  it  is  not  really  easy  to 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  195 

understand  Anaximander's  meaning,  other  than  that 
the  abstract  has  a  higher  significance  than  the  con- 
crete. The  speculations  of  Thales  had  tended  toward 
discovering  the  material  constitution  of  the  universe 
upon  an  induction  from  observed  facts,  and  thus 
made  water  to  be  the  origin  of  all  things.  Anaxi- 
mander,  accustomed  to  view  things  in  the  abstract, 
could  not  accept  so  concrete  a  thing  as  water;  his 
speculations  tended  toward  mathematics,  to  the  science 
of  pure  deduction.  The  primary  Being  is  a  unity, 
one  in  all,  comprising  within  itself  the  multiplicity  of 
elements  from  which  all  mundane  things  are  composed. 
It  is  only  in  infinity  that  the  perpetual  changes  of 
things  can  take  place.  Thus  Anaximander,  an  original 
but  vague  thinker,  prepared  the  way  for  Pythagoras. 

This  later  philosopher  and  mathematician,  born 
about  the  year  600  b.  c,  stands  as  one  of  the  great 
names  of  antiquity ;  but  his  life  is  shrouded  in 
dim  magnificence.  The  old  historians  paint  him  as 
"  clothed  in  robes  of  white,  his  head  covered  with 
gold,  his  aspect  grave  and  majestic,  rapt  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  mysteries  of  existence,  listen- 
ing to  the  music  of  Homer  and  Hesiod,  or  to  the 
harmony  of  the  spheres." 

Pythagoras  was  supposed  to  be  a  native  of  Samos. 
When  quite  young,  being  devoted  to  learning,  he 
quitted  his   country   and   went   to   Egypt,   where  he 


196  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

learned  its  language  and  aU  the  secret  mysteries  of 
the  priests.  He  then  returned  to  Samos,  but  finding 
the  island  under  the  dominion  of  a  tyrant  he  fled  to 
Crotona,  in  Italy,  where  he  gained  great  reputation  for 
wisdom,  and  made  laws  for  the  Italians.  His  pupils 
were  about  three  hundred  in  number.  He  wrote  three 
books,  which  were  extant  in  the  time  of  Diogenes  Laer- 
tius,  —  one  on  Education,  one  on  Politics,  and  one  on 
Natural  Philosophy.  He  also  wrote  an  epic  poem  on 
the  universe,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Kosmos. 

Among  the  ethical  principles  which  Pythagoras 
taught  was  that  men  ought  not  to  pray  for  anything 
in  particular,  since  they  do  not  know  what  is  good 
for  them ;  that  drunkenness  was  identical  with  ruin ; 
that  no  one  should  exceed  the  proper  quantity  of  meat 
and  drink ;  that  the  property  of  friends  is  common ; 
that  men  should  never  say  or  do  anything  in  anger. 
He  forbade  his  disciples  to  offer  victims  to  the  gods, 
ordering  them  to  worship  only  at  those  altars  which 
were  unstained  with  blood. 

Pythagoras  was  the  first  person  who  introduced 
measures  and  weights  among  the  Greeks.  But  it  is 
his  philosophy  which  chiefly  claims  our  attention. 
His  main  principle  was  that  number  is  the  essence 
of  things,  —  probably  meaning  by  number  order  and 
harmony  and  conformity  to  law.  The  order  of  the 
universe,  he  taught,  is  only  a  harmonical  development 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  197 

of  the  first  principle  of  all  things  to  virtue  and  wisdom. 
He  attached  much  value  to  music,  as  an  art  which  has 
great  influence  on  the  affections ;  hence  his  doctrine 
of  the  music  of  the  spheres.  Assuming  that  number 
is  the  essence  of  the  world,  he  deduced  the  idea  that 
the  world  is  regulated  by  numerical  proportions,  or  by 
a  system  of  laws  which  are  regular  and  harmonious  in 
their  operations.  Hence  the  necessity  for  an  intelli- 
gent creator  of  the  universe.  The  Infinite  of  Anaxi- 
mander  became  the  One  of  Pythagoras.  He  believed 
that  the  soul  is  incorporeal,  and  is  put  into  the  body 
subject  to  numerical  and  harmonical  relation,  and  thus 
to  divine  regulation.  Hence  the  tendency  of  his 
speculations  was  to  raise  the  soul  to  the  contempla- 
tion of  law  and  order,  —  of  a  supreme  Intelligence 
reigning  in  justice  and  truth.  Justice  and  truth  be- 
came thus  paramount  virtues,  to  be  practised  and 
sought  as  the  end  of  life.  "It  is  impossible  not  to 
see  in  these  lofty  speculations  the  effect  of  the  Greek 
mind,  according  to  its  own  genius,  seeking  after  God,  if 
haply  it  might  find  Him." 

We  now  approach  the  second  stage  of  Greek  philoso- 
phy. The  Ionic  philosophers  had  sought  to  find  the 
first  principle  of  all  things  in  the  elements,  and  the 
Pythagoreans  in  number,  or  harmony  and  law,  imply- 
ing an  intelligent  creator.  The  Eleatics,  who  now  arose, 
went  beyond  the  realm  of  physics  to  pure  metaphysical 


198  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

inquiries,  to  an  idealistic  pantheism,  which  disregarded 
the  sensible,  maintaining  that  the  source  of  truth  is 
independent  of  the  senses.  Here  they  were  forestalled 
by  the  Hindu  sages. 

The  founder  of  this  school  was  Xenophanes,  bom 
in  Colophon,  an  Ionian  city  of  Asia  Minor,  from  which 
being  expelled  he  wandered  over  Sicily  as  a  rhapsodist, 
or  minstrel,  reciting  his  elegiac  poetry  on  the  loftiest 
truths,  and  at  last,  about  the  year  536  B.  c,  came  to 
Elea,  where  he  settled.  The  principal  subject  of  his 
inquiries  was  deity  itself,  —  the  great  First  Cause, 
the  supreme  Intelligence  of  the  universe.  From  the 
principle  ex  nihilo  nihil  Jit  he  concluded  that  nothing 
could  pass  from  non-existence  to  existence.  All  things 
that  exist  are  created  by  supreme  Intelligence,  who  is 
eternal  and  immutable.  From  this  truth  that  God 
must  be  from  all  eternity,  he  advances  to  deny  all 
multiplicity.  A  plurality  of  gods  is  impossible.  With 
these  sublime  views,  —  the  unity  and  eternity  and 
omnipotence  of  God,  —  Xenophanes  boldly  attacked 
the  popular  errors  of  his  day.  He  denounced  the 
transference  to  the  deity  of  the  human  form ;  he 
inveighed  against  Homer  and  Hesiod;  he  ridiculed 
the  doctrine  of  migration  of  souls.     Thus  he  sings, — 

"  Such  things  of  the  gods  are  related  by  Homer  and  Hesiod 
As  would  be  shame  and  abiding  liisgrace  to  mankind,  — 
Promises  broken,  and  thefts,  and  the  one  deceiving  the  other." 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  199 

And  again,  respecting  anthropomorphic  representa- 
tions of  the  deity, — 

"  But  men  foolislily  think  that  gods  are  born  like  as  men  are, 
And  have  too  a  dress  like  their  own,  and  their  voice  and  their 

figure; 
But  there  *s  but  one  God  alone,  the  greatest  of  gods  and  of 

mortals, 
Neither  in  body  to  mankind  resembling,  neither  in  ideas." 

Such  were  the  sublime  meditations  of  Xenophanes. 
He  believed  in  the  One,  which  is  God ;  but  this  all- 
pervading,  unmoved,  undivided  being  was  not  a  per- 
sonal God,  nor  a  moral  governor,  but  deity  pervading 
all  space.  He  could  not  separate  God  from  the  world, 
nor  could  he  admit  the  existence  of  world  which  is  not 
God.  He  was  a  monotheist,  but  his  monotheism  was 
pantheism.  He  saw  God  in  all  the  manifestations  of 
Nature.  This  did  not  satisfy  him  nor  resolve  his 
doubts,  and  he  therefore  confessed  that  reason  could 
not  compass  the  exalted  aims  of  philosophy.  But 
there  was  no  cynicism  in  his  doubt.  It  was  the 
soul-sickening  consciousness  that  reason  was  incapa- 
ble of  solving  the  mighty  questions  that  he  burned 
to  know.  There  was  no  way  to  arrive  at  the  truth, 
"for,"  said  he,  "error  is  spread  over  all  things."  It 
was  not  disdain  of  knowledge,  it  was  the  combat  of 
contradictory  opinions  that  oppressed  him.  He  could 
not  solve  the  questions  pertaining  to  God.     What  un- 


200  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

instructed  reason  can  ?  "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find 
out  God  ?  canst  thou  know  the  Almighty  unto  perfec- 
tion ? "  What  was  impossible  to  Job  was  not  possible 
to  Xenophanes.  But  he  had  attained  a  recognition  of 
the  unity  and  perfections  of  God ;  and  this  conviction 
he  would  spread  abroad,  and  tear  down  the  supersti- 
tions which  hid  the  face  of  truth.  I  have  great  ad- 
miration for  this  philosopher,  so  sad,  so  earnest,  so 
enthusiastic,  wandering  from  city  to  city,  indifferent 
to  money,  comfort,  friends,  fame,  that  he  might  kindle 
the  knowledge  of  God.  This  was  a  lofty  aim  indeed 
for  philosophy  in  that  age.  It  was  a  higher  mission 
than  that  of  Homer,  great  as  his  was,  though  not  so 
successful. 

Parmenides  of  Elea,  bom  about  the  year  530  B.  c, 
followed  out  the  system  of  Xenophanes,  the  central 
idea  of  which  was  the  existence  of  God.  With  Par- 
menides the  main  thought  was  the  notion  of  being. 
Being  is  uncreated  and  unchangeable ;  the  fulness  of 
all  being  is  thought;  the  All  is  thought  and  intelli- 
gence. He  maintained  the  uncertainty  of  knowledge, 
meaning  the  knowledge  derived  through  the  senses. 
He  did  not  deny  the  certainty  of  reason.  He  was  the 
first  who  drew  a  distinction  between  knowledge  ob- 
tained by  the  senses  and  that  obtained  through  the 
reason ;  and  thus  he  anticipated  the  doctrine  of  innate 
ideas.     From  the  uncertainty  of  knowledge   derived 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  201 

through  the  senses,  he  deduced  the  twofold  system  of 
true  and  apparent  knowledge. 

Zeno  of  Elea,  the  friend  and  pupil  of  Parmenides, 
born  500  B.  c,  brought  nothing  new  to  the  system, 
but  invented  Dialectics,  the  art  of  disputation,  —  that 
department  of  logic  which  afterward  became  so 
powerful  in  the  hands  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  so 
generally  admired  among  the  schoolmen.  It  seeks  to 
establish  truth  by  refuting  error  through  the  reductio 
ad  ahsurdum.  While  Parmenides  sought  to  establish 
the  doctrine  of  the  One,  Zeno  proved  the  non-existence 
of  the  Many.  He  did  not  deny  existences,  but  denied 
that  appearances  were  real  existences.  It  was  the 
mission  of  Zeno  to  establish  the  doctrines  of  his  mas- 
ter. But  in  order  to  convince  his  listeners,  he  was 
obliged  to  use  a  new  method  of  argument.  So  he 
carried  on  his  argumentation  by  question  and  answer, 
and  was  therefore  the  first  who  used  dialogue,  which 
he  called  dialectics,  as  a  medium  of  philosophical 
communication. 

Empedocles,  bom  444  b.  c,  like  others  of  the  Ele- 
atics,  complained  of  the  imperfection  of  the  senses, 
and  looked  for  truth  only  in  reason.  He  regarded 
truth  as  a  perfect  unity,  ruled  by  love,  —  the  only 
true  force,  the  one  moving  cause  of  all  things,  —  the 
first  creative  power  by  which  or  whom  the  world  was 
formed.     Thus  "  God  is   love "  is  a  sublime  doctrine 


202  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

which  philosophy  revealed  to  the  Greeks,  and  the 
emphatic  and  continuous  and  assured  declaration  of 
which  was  the  central  theme  of  the  revelation  made 
by  Jesus,  the  Christ,  who  resolved  all  the  Law  and 
the  Gospel  into  the  element  of  Love,  —  fatherly  on 
the  part  of  God,  filial  and  fraternal  on  the  part  of 
men. 

Thus  did  the  Eleatic  philosophers  speculate  almost 
contemporaneously  with  the  lonians  on  the  beginning 
of  things  and  the  origin  of  knowledge,  taking  different 
grounds,  and  attempting  to  correct  the  representations 
of  sense  by  the  notions  of  reason.  But  both  schools, 
although  they  did  not  establish  many  truths,  raised  an 
inquisitive  spirit,  and  awakened  freedom  of  thought 
and  inquiry.  They  raised  up  workmen  for  more 
enlightened  times,  even  as  scholastic  inquirers  in  the 
Middle  Ages  prepared  the  way  for  the  revival  of 
philosophy  on  sounder  principles.  They  were  all 
men  of  remarkable  elevation  of  character  as  well  as 
genius.  They  hated  superstitions,  and  attacked  the 
anthropomorphism  of  their  day.  They  handled  gods 
and  goddesses  with  allegorizing  boldness,  and  hence 
were  often  persecuted  by  the  people.  They  did  not 
establish  moral  truths  by  scientific  processes,  but  they 
set  examples  of  lofty  disdain  of  wealth  and  factitious 
advantages,  and  devoted  themselves  with  holy  enthu- 
siasm to  the   solution  of  the  great  questions  which 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  203 

pertain  to  God  and  Nature.  Thales  won  the  respect 
of  his  countrymen  by  devotion  to  studies.  Pythagoras 
spent  twenty-two  years  in  Egypt  to  learn  its  science. 
Xenophanes  wandered  over  Sicily  as  a  rhapsodist  of 
truth.  Parmenides,  born  to  wealth  and  splendor,  for- 
sook the  feverish  pursuit  of  sensual  enjoyments  that 
he  might  "  behold  the  bright  countenance  of  truth  in 
the  quiet  and  still  air  of  delightful  studies."  Zeno  de- 
clined all  worldly  honors  in  order  that  he  might  diffuse 
the  doctrines  of  his  master.  Heraclitus  refused  the 
chief  magistracy  of  Ephesus  that  he  might  have  leisure 
to  explore  the  depths  of  his  own  nature.  Anaxagoras 
allowed  his  patrimony  to  run  to  waste  in  order  to 
solve  problems.  "  To  philosophy,"  said  he,  "  I  owe 
my  worldly  ruin,  and  my  soul's  prosperity."  All  these 
men  were,  without  exception,  the  greatest  and  best 
men  of  their  times.  They  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
beautiful  temple  which  was  constructed  after  they  were 
dead,  in  which  both  physics  and  psychology  reached 
the  dignity  of  science.  They  too  were  prophets,  al- 
though unconscious  of  their  divine  mission,  —  prophets 
of  that  day  when  the  science  which  explores  and  illus- 
trates the  works  of  God  shall  enlarge,  enrich,  and  beau- 
tify man's  conceptions  of  the  great  creative  Father. 

Nevertheless,  these  great  men,  lofty  as  were  their 
inquiries  and  blameless  their  lives,  had  not  estab- 
lished any  system,  nor  any  theories  which  were  in- 

VOL.  I.  —  12 


204  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

controvertible.  They  had  simply  speculated,  and  the 
world  ridiculed  their  speculations.  Their  ideas  were 
one-sided,  and  when  pushed  out  to  their  extreme 
logical  sequence  were  antagonistic  to  one  another; 
which  had  a  tendency  to  produce  doubt  and  scepti- 
cism. Men  denied  the  existence  of  the  gods,  and  the 
grounds  of  certainty  fell  away  from  the  human  mind. 

This  spirit  of  scepticism  was  favored  by  the  tide 
of  worldliness  and  prosperity  which  followed  the 
Persian  War.  Athens  became  a  great  centre  of  art, 
of  taste,  of  elegance,  and  of  wealth.  Politics  absorbed 
the  minds  of  the  people.  Glory  and  splendor  were 
followed  by  corruption  of  morals  and  the  pursuit  of 
material  pleasures.  Philosophy  went  out  of  fashion, 
since  it  brought  no  outward  and  tangible  good.  Llore 
scientific  studies  were  pursued,  —  those  which  could 
be  applied  to  purposes  of  utility  and  material  gains; 
even  as  in  our  day  geology,  chemistry,  mechanics, 
engineering,  having  reference  to  the  practical  wants 
of  men,  command  talent,  and  lead  to  certain  reward. 
In  Athens,  rhetoric,  mathematics,  and  natural  history 
supplanted  rhapsodies  and  speculations  on  Grod  and 
Providence.  Renown  and  wealth  could  be  secured 
only  by  readiness  and  felicity  of  speech,  and  that  was 
most  valued  which  brought  immediate  recompense, 
like  eloquence.  Men  began  to  practise  eloquence  as 
an  art,  and  to  employ  it  in  furthering  their  interests. 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  205 

They  made  special  pleadings,  since  it  was  their  object 
to  gain  their  point  at  any  expense  of  law  and  justice. 
Hence  they  taught  that  nothing  was  immutably  right, 
but  only  so  by  convention.  They  undermined  all 
confidence  in  truth  and  religion  by  teaching  its  uncer- 
tainty. They  denied  to  men  even  the  capability  of 
arriving  at  truth.  They  practically  affirmed  the  cold 
and  cynical  doctrine  that  there  is  nothing  better  for 
a  man  than  that  he  should  eat  and  drink.  Cui  hono  ? 
this,  the  cry  of  most  men  in  periods  of  great  outward 
prosperity,  was  the  popular  inquiry.  Who  will  show 
us  any  good  ?  —  how  can  we  become  rich,  strong,  hon- 
orable ?  —  this  was  the  spirit  of  that  class  of  public 
teachers  who  arose  in  Athens  when  art  and  eloquence 
and  wealth  and  splendor  were  at  their  height  in  the 
fifth  century  before  Christ,  and  when  the  elegant  Peri- 
cles was  the  leader  of  fashion  and  of  political  power. 

These  men  were  the  Sophists, — rhetorical  men,  who 
taught  the  children  of  the  rich;  worldly  men,  who 
sought  honor  and  power;  frivolous  men,  trifling  with 
philosophical  ideas ;  sceptical  men,  denying  all  cer- 
tainty in  truth  ;  men  who  as  teachers  added  nothing 
to  the  realm  of  science,  but  who  yet  established  cer- 
tain dialectical  rules  useful  to  later  philosophers. 
They  were  a  wealthy,  powerful,  honored  class,  not 
much  esteemed  by  men  of  thought,  but  sought  out 
as  very  successful  teachers  of  rhetoric,  and  also  gen- 


206  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

erally  selected  as  ambassadors  on  difficult  missions. 
They  were  full  of  logical  tricks,  and  contrived  to  throw 
ridicule  upon  profound  inquiries.  They  taught  also 
mathematics,  astronomy,  philology,  and  natural  history 
with  success.  They  were  polished  men  of  society ;  not 
profound  nor  religious,  but  very  brilliant  as  talkers, 
and  very  ready  in  wit  and  sophistry.  And  some  of 
them  were  men  of  great  learning  and  talent,  like 
Democritus,  Leucippus,  and  Gorgias.  They  were  not 
pretenders  and  quacks ;  they  were  sceptics  who  de- 
nied subjective  truths,  and  labored  for  outward  ad- 
vantage. They  taught  the  art  of  disputation,  and 
sought  systematic  methods  of  proof.  They  thus  pre- 
pared the  way  for  a  more  perfect  philosophy  than  that 
taught  by  the  lonians,  the  Pythagoreans,  or  the  Eleat- 
ics,  since  they  showed  the  vagueness  of  such  inquiries, 
conjectural  rather  than  scientific.  They  had  no  doc- 
trines in  common.  They  were  the  barristers  of  their 
age,  paid  to  make  the  "  worse  appear  the  better  rea- 
son;" yet  not  teachers  of  immorality  any  more  than 
the  lawyers  of  our  day,  —  men  of  talents,  the  intellec- 
tual leaders  of  society.  If  they  did  not  advance  pos- 
itive truths,  they  were  useful  in  the  method  they 
created.  They  had  no  hostility  to  truth,  as  such  ;  they 
only  doubted  whether  it  could  be  reached  in  the  realm 
of  psychological  inquiries,  and  sought  to  apply  knowl- 
edge to  their  own  purposes,  or  rather  to  distort  it  in 


JEERING  AFTER   TRUTH.  ZUT 

order  to  gain  a  case.  They  are  not  a  class  of  men 
whom  I  admire,  as  I  do  the  old  sages  they  ridiculed, 
but  they  were  not  without  their  use  in  the  development 
of  philosophy.  The  Sophists  also  rendered  a  service  to 
literature  by  giving  definiteness  to  language,  and  creat- 
ing style  in  prose  writing.  Protagoras  investigated 
the  principles  of  accurate  composition ;  Prodicus  busied 
himself  with  inquiries  into  the  significance  of  words ; 
Gorgias,  like  Voltaire,  gloried  in  a  captivating  style, 
and  gave  symmetry  to  the  structure  of  sentences. 

The  ridicule  and  scepticism  of  the  Sophists  brought 
out  the  great  powers  of  Socrates,  to  whom  philosophy 
is  probably  more  indebted  than  to  any  man  who  ever 
lived,  not  so  much  for  a  perfect  system  as  for  the 
impulse  he  gave  to  philosophical  inquiries,  and  for  his 
successful  exposure  of  error.  He  inaugurated  a  new 
era.  Born  in  Athens  in  the  year  470  b.  c,  the  son 
of  a  poor  sculptor,  he  devoted  his  life  to  the  search 
after  truth  for  its  own  sake,  and  sought  to  base  it  on 
immutable  foundations.  He  was  the  mortal  enemy 
of  the  Sophists,  whom  he  encountered,  as  Pascal  did 
the  Jesuits,  with  wit,  irony,  puzzling  questions,  and 
remorseless  logic.  It  is  true  that  Socrates  and  his 
great  successors  Plato  and  Aristotle  were  called  "  So- 
phists," but  only  as  all  philosophers  or  wise  men  were 
so  called.  The  Sophists  as  a  class  had  incurred  the 
odium  of  being  the  first  teachers  who  received  pay  for 


208  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

the  instruction  they  imparted.  The  philosophers  gen- 
erally taught  for  the  love  of  truth.  The  Sophists  were 
a  natural  and  necessary  and  very  useful  development 
of  their  time,  but  they  veere  distinctly  on  a  lower  level 
than  the  Philosophers,  or  lovers  of  wisdom. 

Like  the  earher  philosophers,  Socrates  disdained 
wealth,  ease,  and  comfort,  —  but  with  greater  devotion 
than  they,  since  he  lived  in  a  more  corrupt  age,  when 
poverty  was  a  disgrace  and  misfortune  a  crime,  when 
success  was  the  standard  of  merit,  and  every  man  was 
supposed  to  be  the  arbiter  of  his  own  fortune,  ignoring 
that  Providence  who  so  often  refuses  the  race  to  the 
swift,  and  the  battle  to  the  strong.  He  was  what  in 
our  time  would  be  called  eccentric.  He  walked  bare- 
footed, meanly  clad,  and  withal  not  over  cleanly,  seek- 
ing public  places,  disputing  with  everybody  willing  to 
talk  with  him,  making  everybody  ridiculous,  especially 
if  one  assumed  airs  of  wisdom  or  knowledge,  —  an 
exasperating  opponent,  since  he  wove  a  web  around 
a  man  from  which  he  could  not  be  extricated,  and 
then  exposed  him  to  ridicule  in  the  wittiest  city  of 
the  world.  He  attacked  everybody,  and  yet  was 
generally  respected,  since  it  was  errors  rather  than 
persons,  opinions  rather  than  vices,  that  he  attacked; 
and  this  he  did  with  bewitching  eloquence  and  irre- 
sistible fascination,  so  that  though  he  was  poor  and 
barefooted,  a  Silenus  in  appearance,  with  thick  lips, 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  209 

upturned  nose,  projecting  eyes,  unwieldy  belly,  he  was 
sought  by  Alcibiades  and  admired  by  Aspasia.  Even 
Xanthippe,  a  beautiful  young  woman,  very  much 
younger  than  he,  a  woman  fond  of  the  comforts  and 
pleasures  of  life,  was  willing  to  marry  him,  although 
it  is  said  that  she  turned  out  a  "  scolding  wife "  after 
the  res  angusta  domi  had  disenchanted  her  from  the 
music  of  his  voice  and  the  divinity  of  his  nature.  "  I 
have  heard  Pericles,"  said  the  most  dissipated  and 
voluptuous  man  in  Athens,  "and  other  excellent  ora- 
tors, but  was  not  moved  by  them ;  while  this  Marsyas 
—  this  Satyr  —  so  affects  me  that  the  life  I  lead  is 
hardly  worth  living,  and  I  stop  my  ears  as  from  the 
Sirens,  and  flee  as  fast  as  possible,  that  I  may  not  sit 
down  and  grow  old  in  listening  to  his  talk." 

Socrates  learned  his  philosophy  from  no  one,  and 
struck  out  an  entirely  new  path.  He  declared  his 
own  ignorance,  and  sought  to  convince  other  people  of 
theirs.  He  did  not  seek  to  reveal  truth  so  much  as 
to  expose  error.  And  yet  it  was  his  object  to  attain 
correct  ideas  as  to  moral  obligations.  He  proclaimed 
the  sovereignty  of  virtue  and  the  immutability  of 
justice.  He  sought  to  delineate  and  enforce  the  prac- 
tical duties  of  life.  His  great  object  was  the  elucida- 
tion of  morals ;  and  he  was  the  first  to  teach  ethics 
systematically  from  the  immutable  principles  of  moral 
obligation.      Moral  certitude   was  the  lofty  platform 


210  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

from  which  he  surveyed  the  world,  and  upon  which, 
as  a  rock,  he  rested  in  the  storms  of  life.  Thus  he 
was  a  reformer  and  a  moralist.  It  was  his  ethical 
doctrines  which  were  most  antagonistic  to  the  age 
and  the  least  appreciated.  He  was  a  profoundly 
religious  man,  recognized  Providence,  and  believed  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul.  He  did  not  presume  to 
inquire  into  the  Divine  essence,  yet  he  believed  that 
the  gods  were  omniscient  and  omnipresent,  that  they 
ruled  by  the  law  of  goodness,  and  that  in  spite  of 
their  multiplicity  there  was  unity, — a  supreme  Intelli- 
gence that  governed  the  world.  Hence  he  was  hated 
by  the  Sophists,  who  denied  the  certainty  of  arriving 
at  any  knowledge  of  God.  From  the  comparative 
worthlessness  of  the  body  he  deduced  the  immortality 
of  the  soul.  With  him  the  end  of  life  was  reason  and 
intelligence.  He  deduced  the  existence  of  God  from 
the  order  and  harmony  of  Nature,  belief  in  which  was 
irresistible.  He  endeavored  to  connect  the  moral  with 
the  religious  consciousness,  and  thus  to  promote  the 
practical  welfare  of  society.  In  this  light  Socrates 
stands  out  the  grandest  personage  of  Pagan  antiquity, 
—  as  a  moralist,  as  a  teacher  of  ethics,  as  a  man  who 
recognized  the  Divine. 

So  far  as  he  was  concerned  in  the  development  of 
Greek  philosophy  proper,  he  was  inferior  to  some  of 
his  disciples.     Yet  he  gave  a  turning-point  to  a  new 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  211 

period  when  he  awakened  the  idea  of  knowledge,  and 
was  the  founder  of  the  method  of  scientific  inquiry, 
since  he  pointed  out  the  legitimate  bounds  of  inquiry, 
and  was  thus  the  precursor  of  Bacon  and  Pascal.  He 
did  not  attempt  to  make  physics  explain  metaphysics, 
nor  metaphysics  the  phenomena  of  the  natural  world; 
and  he  reasoned  only  from  what  was  generally  as- 
sumed to  be  true  and  invariable.  He  was  a  great 
pioneer  of  philosophy,  since  he  resorted  to  inductive 
methods  of  proof,  and  gave  general  definiteness  to 
ideas.  Although  he  employed  induction,  it  was  his 
aim  to  withdraw  the  mind  from  the  contemplation  of 
Nature,  and  to  fix  it  on  its  own  phenomena,  —  to  look 
inward  rather  than  outward  ;  a  method  carried  out  ad- 
mirably by  his  pupil  Plato.  The  previous  philosophers 
had  given  their  attention  to  external  nature;  Socrates 
gave  up  speculations  about  material  phenomena,  and 
directed  his  inquiries  solely  to  the  nature  of  knowledge. 
And  as  he  considered  knowledge  to  be  identical  with 
virtue,  he  speculated  on  ethical  questions  mainly,  and 
the  method  which  he  taught  was  that  by  which  alone 
man  could  become  better  and  wiser.  To  know  one's 
self,  —  in  other  words,  that  "  the  proper  study  of  man- 
kind is  man,"  —  he  proclaimed  with  Thales.  Cicero 
said  of  him,  "  Socrates  brought  down  philosophy  from 
the  heavens  to  the  earth."  He  did  not  disdain  the  sub- 
jects which  chiefly  interested  the  Sophists,  —  astron- 


212  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

omy,  rhetoric,  physics,  —  but  he  chiefly  discussed  moral 
questions,  such  as.  What  is  piety  ?  What  is  the  just 
and  the  unjust  ?  What  is  temperance  ?  W^hat  is 
courage  ?  What  is  the  character  fit  for  a  citizen  ?  — 
and  other  ethical  points,  involving  practical  human 
relationships. 

These  questions  were  discussed  by  Socrates  in  a 
striking  manner,  and  by  a  method  peculiarly  his  own. 
"  Professing  ignorance,  he  put  perhaps  this  question : 
What  is  law  ?  It  was  familiar,  and  was  answered  off- 
hand. Socrates,  having  got  the  answer,  then  put  fresh 
questions  applicable  to  specific  cases,  to  which  the  re- 
spondent was  compelled  to  give  an  answer  inconsistent 
with  the  first,  thus  showing  that  the  definition  was 
too  narrow  or  too  wide,  or  defective  in  some  essential 
condition.  The  respondent  then  amended  his  answer ; 
but  this  was  a  prelude  to  other  questions,  which  could 
only  be  answered  in  ways  inconsistent  with  the  amend- 
ment ;  and  the  respondent,  after  many  attempts  to  dis- 
entangle himself,  was  obliged  to  plead  guilty  to  his 
inconsistencies,  with  an  admission  that  he  could  make 
no  satisfactory  answer  to  the  original  inquiry  which 
had  at  first  appeared  so  easy."  Thus,  by  this  system  of 
cross-examination,  he  showed  the  intimate  connection 
between  the  dialectic  method  and  the  logical  distribu- 
tion of  particulars  into  species  and  genera.  The  dis- 
cussion first  turns  upon  the  meaning  of  some  generic 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  213 

term ;  the  queries  bring  the  answers  into  collision  with 
various  particulars  which  it  ought  not  to  comprehend, 
or  which  it  ought  to  comprehend,  but  does  not.  Soc- 
rates broke  up  the  one  into  many  by  his  analytical 
string  of  questions,  which  was  a  mode  of  argument 
by  which  he  separated  real  knowledge  from  the  con- 
ceit of  knowledge,  and  led  to  precision  in  the  use  of 
definitions.  It  was  thus  that  he  exposed  the  false, 
without  aiming  even  to  teach  the  true ;  for  he  gener- 
ally professed  ignorance  on  his  part,  and  put  himself 
in  the  attitude  of  a  learner,  while  by  his  cross-exami- 
nations he  made  the  man  from  whom  he  apparently 
sought  knowledge  to  appear  as  ignorant  as  himself, 
or,  still  worse,  absolutely  ridiculous. 

Thus  Socrates  pulled  away  all  the  foundations  on 
which  a  false  science  had  been  erected,  and  indicated 
the  mode  by  which  alone  the  true  could  be  estab- 
lished. Here  he  was  not  unlike  Bacon,  who  pointed 
out  the  way  whereby  science  could  be  advanced,  with- 
out founding  any  school  or  advocating  any  system; 
but  the  Athenian  was  unlike  Bacon  in  the  object  of 
his  inquiries.  Bacon  was  disgusted  with  inefiFective 
logical  speculations,  and  Socrates  with  ineffective  phy- 
sical researches.  He  never  suffered  a  general  term  to 
remain  undetermined,  but  applied  it  at  once  to  par- 
ticulars, and  by  questions  the  purport  of  which  was 
not   comprehended.     It  was  not  by  positive  teaching. 


5:14  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

but  by  exciting  scientific  impulse  in  the  minds  of 
others,  or  stirring  up  the  analytical  faculties,  that 
Socrates  manifested  originality.  It  was  his  aim  to 
force  the  seekers  after  truth  into  the  path  of  inductive 
generalization,  whereby  alone  trustworthy  conclusions 
could  be  formed.  He  thus  struck  out  from  his  own 
and  other  minds  that  fire  which  sets  light  to  original 
thought  and  stimulates  analytical  inquiry.  He  was  a 
religious  and  intellectual  missionary,  preparing  the  way 
for  the  Platos  and  Aristotles  of  the  succeeding  age  by 
his  severe  dialectics.  This  was  his  mission,  and  he 
declared  it  by  talking.  He  did  not  lecture;  he  con- 
versed. For  more  than  thirty  years  he  discoursed  on 
the  principles  of  morality,  until  he  arrayed  against 
himself  enemies  who  caused  him  to  be  put  to  death, 
for  his  teachings  had  undermined  the  popular  system 
which  the  Sophists  accepted  and  practised.  He  prob- 
ably might  have  been  acquitted  if  he  had  chosen  to 
be,  but  he  did  not  wish  to  live  after  his  powers  of 
usefulness  had  passed  away. 

The  services  which  Socrates  rendered  to  philosophy, 
as  enumerated  by  Tennemann,  "  are  twofold,  —  nega- 
tive and  positive.  Negative,  inasmuch  as  he  avoided 
all  vain  discussions ;  combated  mere  speculative  rea- 
soning on  substantial  grounds ;  and  had  the  wisdom 
to  acknowledge  ignorance  when  necessary,  but  without 
attempting  to  determine   accurately  what   is   capable 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  215 

and  what  is  not  of  being  accurately  known.  Positive, 
inasmuch  as  he  examined  with  great  ability  the  ground 
directly  submitted  to  our  understanding,  and  of  which 
man  is  the  centre." 

Socrates  cannot  be  said  to  have  founded  a  school, 
like  Xenophanes.  He  did  not  bequeath  a  system  of 
doctrines.  He  had  however  his  disciples,  who  fol- 
lowed in  the  path  which  he  suggested.  Among  these 
were  Aristippus,  Antisthenes,  Euclid  of  Megara,  Phsedo 
of  Elis,  and  Plato,  all  of  whom  were  pupils  of  Soc- 
rates and  founders  of  schools.  Some  only  partially 
adopted  his  method,  and  each  differed  from  the  other. 
Nor  can  it  be  said  that  all  of  them  advanced  science. 
Aristippus,  the  founder  of  the  Cyreniac  school,  was 
a  sort  of  philosophic  voluptuary,  teaching  that  pleas- 
ure is  the  end  of  life.  Antisthenes,  the  founder  of 
the  Cynics,  was  both  virtuous  and  arrogant,  placing 
the  supreme  good  in  virtue,  but  despising  speculative 
science,  and  maintaining  that  no  man  can  refute  the 
opinions  of  another.  He  made  it  a  virtue  to  be  ragged, 
hungry,  and  cold,  like  the  ancient  monks  ;  an  austere, 
stern,  bitter,  reproachful  man,  who  affected  to  despise 
all  pleasures,  —  like  his  own  disciple  Diogenes,  who 
lived  in  a  tub,  and  carried  on  a  war  between  the  mind 
and  body,  brutal,  scornful,  proud.  To  men  who  main- 
tained that  science  was  impossible,  philosophy  is  not 
much  indebted,  although  they  were  disciples  of  Soc- 


216  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

rates.  Euclid  —  not  the  mathematician,  who  was 
about  a  century  later  —  merely  gave  a  new  edition 
of  the  Eleatic  doctrines,  and  Phsedo  speculated  on  the 
oneness  of  "  the  good." 

It  was  not  till  Plato  arose  that  a  more  complete 
system  of  philosophy  was  founded.  He  was  born  of 
noble  Athenian  parents,  429  B.  c,  the  year  that  Pericles 
died,  and  the  second  year  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  — 
the  most  active  period  of  Grecian  thought.  He  had  a 
severe  education,  studying  mathematics,  poetry,  music, 
rhetoric,  and  blending  these  with  philosophy.  He  was 
only  twenty  when  he  found  out  Socrates,  with  whom 
he  remained  ten  years,  and  from  whom  he  was  separ- 
ated only  by  death.  He  then  went  on  his  travels, 
visiting  everything  worth  seeing  in  his  day,  especially 
in  Egypt.  When  he  returned  he  began  to  teach 
the  doctrines  of  his  master,  which  he  did,  like  him, 
gratuitously,  in  a  garden  near  Athens,  planted  with 
lofty  plane-trees  and  adorned  with  temples  and 
statues.  This  was  called  the  Academy,  and  gave  a 
name  to  his  system  of  philosophy.  It  is  this  only 
with  which  we  have  to  do.  It  is  not  the  calm,  serious, 
meditative,  isolated  man  that  I  would  present,  but  his 
contribution  to  the  developments  of  philosophy  on  the 
principles  of  his  master.  Surely  no  man  ever  made 
a  richer  contribution  to  this  department  of  human 
inquiry  than    Plato.      He    may   not    have    had    the 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  217 

originality  or  keenness  of  Socrates,  but  be  was  more 
profound.  He  was  pre-eminently  a  great  thinker,  a 
great  logician,  skilled  in  dialectics ;  and  his  "  Dia- 
logues "  are  such  perfect  exercises  of  dialectical  method 
that  the  ancients  were  divided  as  to.  whether  he  was 
a  sceptic  or  a  dogmatist.  He  adopted  the  Socratic 
method  and  enlarged  it.     Says  Lewes  :  — 

"  Analysis,  as  insisted  on  by  Plato,  is  the  decomposition  of 
the  whole  into  its  separate  parts,  —  is  seeing  the  one  in 
many.  .  .  .  The  individual  thing  was  transitory;  the  ab- 
stract idea  was  eternal.  Only  concerning  the  latter  could 
philosophy  occupy  itself.  Socrates,  insisting  on  proper  defi- 
nitions, had  no  conception  of  the  classification  of  those 
definitions  which  must  constitute  philosophy.  Plato,  by 
the  introduction  of  this  process,  shifted  philosophy  from 
the  ground  of  inquiries  into  man  and  society,  which  exclu- 
sively occupied  Socrates,  to  that  of  dialectics." 

Plato  was  also  distinguished  for  skill  in  composition. 
Dionysius  of  Halicamassus  classes  him  with  Herodotus 
and  Demosthenes  in  the  perfection  of  his  style,  which 
is  characterized  by  great  harmony  and  rhythm,  as  well 
as  by  a  rich  variety  of  elegant  metaphors. 

Plato  made  philosophy  to  consist  in  the  discussion  of 
general  terms,  or  abstract  ideas.  General  terms  were 
synonymous  with  real  existences,  and  these  were  the 
only  objects  of  philosophy.     These  were  called  Ideas ; 


218  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

and  ideas  are  the  basis  of  his  system,  or  rather  the 
subject-matter  of  dialectics.  He  maintained  that  every 
general  term,  or  abstract  idea,  has  a  real  and  indepen- 
dent existence  ;  nay,  that  the  mental  power  of  conceiv- 
ing and  combining  ideas,  as  contrasted  with  the  mere 
impressions  received  from  matter  and  external  phenom- 
ena, is  the  only  real  and  permanent  existence.  Hence 
his  writings  became  the  great  fountain-head  of  the 
Ideal  philosophy.  In  his  assertion  of  the  real  existence 
of  so  abstract  and  supersensuous  a  thing  as  an  idea, 
he  probably  was  indebted  to  Pythagoras,  for  Plato  was 
a  master  of  the  whole  realm  of  philosophical  specula- 
tion ;  but  his  conception  of  ideas  as  the  essence  of 
being  is  a  great  advance  on  that  philosopher's  concep- 
tion of  numbers.  He  was  taught  by  Socrates  that 
beyond  this  world  of  sense  there  is  the  world  of 
eternal  truth,  and  that  there  are  certain  principles 
concerning  which  there  can  be  no  dispute.  The  soul 
apprehends  the  idea  of  goodness,  greatness,  etc.  It 
is  in  the  celestial  world  that  we  are  to  find  the  realm 
of  ideas.  Now,  God  is  the  supreme  idea.  To  know 
Grod,  then,  should  be  the  great  aim  of  life.  We  know 
him  through  the  desire  which  like  feels  for  like.  The 
divinity  within  feels  its  affinity  with  the  divinity 
revealed  in  beauty,  or  any  other  abstract  idea.  The 
longing  of  the  soul  for  beauty  is  love.  Love,  then,  is 
the  bond  which  unites  the  human  with  the  divine. 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  219 

Beauty  is  not  revealed  by  harmonious  outlines  that 
appeal  to  the  senses,  but  is  truth;  it  is  divinity. 
Beauty,  truth,  love,  these  are  God,  whom  it  is  the 
supreme  desire  of  the  soul  to  comprehend,  and  by 
the  contemplation  of  whom  the  mortal  soul  sustains 
itself.  Knowledge  of  God  is  the  great  end  of  life; 
and  this  knowledge  is  effected  by  dialectics,  for  only 
out  of  dialectics  can  correct  knowledge  come.  But 
man,  immersed  in  the  flux  of  sensualities,  can  never 
fully  attain  this  knowledge  of  God,  the  object  of  all 
rational  inquiry.  Hence  the  imperfection  of  all  hu- 
man knowledge.  The  supreme  good  is  attainable;  it 
is  not  attained.  God  is  the  immutable  good,  and  jus- 
tice the  rule  of  the  universe.  "  The  vital  principle  of 
Plato's  philosophy,"  says  Eitter,  "  is  to  show  that  true 
science  is  the  knowledge  of  the  good,  is  the  eternal 
contemplation  of  truth,  or  ideas ;  and  though  man 
may  not  be  able  to  apprehend  it  in  its  unity,  because 
he  is  subject  to  the  restraints  of  the  body,  he  is  nev- 
ertheless permitted  to  recognize  it  imperfectly  by 
calling  to  mind  the  eternal  measure  of  existence  by 
which  he  is  in  his  origin  connected."  To  quote 
from  Eitter  again  :  — 

"  When  we  review  the  doctrines  of  Plato,  it  is  impossible 
to  deny  that  they  are  pervaded  with  a  grand  view  of  life 
and  the  universe.  This  is  the  noble  thought  which  inspired 
him  to  say  that  God  is  the  constant  and  immutable  good ; 

VOL,  I.  — 13 


220  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

the  -world  is  good  in  a  state  of  becoming,  and  the  human 
soul  that  in  and  through  which  the  good  in  the  world  is  to 
be  consummated.  In  his  sublimer  conception  he  shows 
himself  the  worthy  disciple  of  Socrates.  .  .  .  While  he 
adopted  many  of  the  opinions  of  his  predecessore,  and  gave 
due  consideration  to  the  results  of  the  earlier  philosophy,  he 
did  not  allow  himself  to  be  disturbed  by  the  mass  of  con- 
flicting theories,  but  breathed  into  them  the  life-giving 
breath  of  unity.  He  may  have  erred  in  his  attempts  to 
determine  the  nature  of  good;  still  he  pointed  out  to  all 
who  aspire  to  a  knowledge  of  the  divine  nature  an  excellent 
road  by  which  they  may  arrive  at  it." 

That  Plato  was  one  of  the  greatest  lights  of  the 
ancient  world  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt. 
Nor  is  it  probable  that  as  a  dialectician  he  has  ever 
been  surpassed,  while  his  purity  of  life  and  his  lofty 
inquiries  and  his  belief  in  God  and  immortality  make 
him,  in  an  ethical  point  of  view,  the  most  worthy  of 
the  disciples  of  Socrates.  He  was  to  the  Greeks  what 
Kant  was  to  the  Germans  ;  and  these  two  great  think- 
ers resemble  each  other  in  the  structure  of  their  minds 
and  their  relations  to  society. 

The  ablest  part  of  the  lectures  of  Archer  Butler,  of 
Dublin,  is  devoted  to  the  Platonic  philosophy.  It  is  at 
once  a  criticism  and  a  eulogium.  No  modern  writer 
has  written  more  enthusiastically  of  what  he  considers 
the  crowning  excellence  of  the  Greek  philosophy.     The 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  5^21 

dialectics  of  Plato,  his  ideal  theory,  his  physics,  his 
psychology,  and  his  ethics  are  most  ably  discussed, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  a  loving  and  eloquent  disciple. 
Butler  represents  the  philosophy  which  he  so  much 
admires  as  a  contemplation  of,  and  a  tendency  to,  the 
absolute  and  eternal  good.  As  the  admirers  of  Ealph 
Waldo  Emerson  claim  that  he,  more  than  any  other 
man  of  our  times,  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  Pla- 
tonic philosophy,  I  introduce  some  of  his  most  striking 
paragraphs  of  subdued  but  earnest  admiration  of  the 
greatest  intellect  of  the  ancient  Pagan  world,  hoping 
that  they  may  be  clearer  to  others  than  they  are 
to  me :  — 

"  These  sentences  [of  Plato]  contain  the  culture  of 
nations  ;  these  are  the  corner-stone  of  schools ;  these  are 
the  fountain-head  of  literatures.  A  discipline  it  is  in  logic, 
arithmetic,  taste,  symmetry,  poetry,  language,  rhetoric, 
ontology,  morals,  or  practical  wisdom.  There  never  was 
such  a  range  of  speculation.  Out  of  Plato  come  all  things 
that  are  still  written  and  debated  among  men  of  thought. 
Great  havoc  makes  he  among  our  originalities.  We  have 
reached  the  mountain  from  which  all  these  drift-bowlders 
were  detached.  .  .  .  Plato,  in  Egypt  and  in  Eastern  pil- 
grimages, imbibed  the  idea  of  one  Deity,  in  which  all  things 
are  absorbed.  The  unity  of  Asia  and  the  detail  of  Europe, 
the  infinitude  of  the  Asiatic  soul  and  the  defining,  result- 
loving,  machine-making,  surface-seeking,  opera-going  Europe 


222  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

Plato  came  to  join,  and  by  contact  to  enhance  the  energy 
of  each.  The  excellence  of  Europe  and  Asia  is  in  his  brain. 
Metaphysics  and  natural  philosophy  expressed  the  genius  of 
Eiurope ;  he  substricts  the  religion  of  Asia  as  the  base.  In 
short,  a  balanced  soul  was  bom,  perceptive  of  the  two  ele- 
ments. .  .  .  The  physical  philosophers  had  sketched  each 
his  theory  of  the  world ;  the  theory  of  atoms,  of  fire,  of 
flux,  of  spirit,  —  theories  mechanical  and  chemical  in  their 
genius.  Plato,  a  master  of  mathematics,  studious  of  all 
natural  laws  and  causes,  feels  these,  as  second  causes,  to 
be  no  theories  of  the  world,  but  bare  inventories  and  lists. 
To  the  study  of  Nature  he  therefore  prefixes  the  dogma,  — 
'  Let  us  declare  the  cause  which  led  the  Supreme  Ordainer 
to  produce  and  compose  the  universe.  He  was  good  ;  .  .  . 
he  wished  that  all  things  should  be  as  much  as  possible  like 
himself.* .  .  . 

"Plato  .  .  .  represents  the  privilege  of  the  intellect, — 
the  power,  namely,  of  carrying  up  every  fact  to  successive 
platforms,  and  so  disclosing  in  every  fact  a  germ  of  ex- 
pansion. .  .  .  These  expansions,  or  extensions,  consist  m 
continuing  the  spiritual  sight  where  the  horizon  falls  on 
our  natural  vision,  and  by  this  second  sight  discovering 
the  long  lines  of  law  which  shoot  in  every  direction.  .  .  . 
His  definition  of  ideas  as  what  is  simple,  permanent,  uni- 
form, and  self-existent,  forever  discriminating  them  from  the 
notions  of  the  understanding,  marks  an  era  in  the  world. 

The  great  disciple  of  Plato  was  Aristotle,  and  he 
carried  on  the  philosophical  movement  which  Socrates 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  223 

had  started  to  the  highest  limit  that  it  ever  reached  in 
the  ancient  world.  He  was  born  at  Stagira,  384  B.  c, 
and  early  evinced  an  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge. 
When  Plato  returned  from  Sicily  Aristotle  joined  his 
disciples  at  Athens,  and  was  his  pupil  for  seventeen 
years.  On  the  death  of  Plato,  he  went  on  his 
travels  and  became  the  tutor  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
and  in  335  b.  c.  returned  to  Athens  after  an  absence 
of  twelve  years,  and  set  up  a  school  in  the  Lyceum. 
He  taught  while  walking  up  and  down  the  shady 
paths  which  surrounded  it,  from  which  habit  he  ob- 
tained the  name  of  the  Peripatetic,  which  has  clung 
to  his  name  and  philosophy.  His  school  had  a  great 
celebrity,  and  from  it  proceeded  illustrious  philoso- 
phers, statesmen,  historians,  and  orators.  Aristotle 
taught  for  thirteen  years,  during  which  time  he  com- 
posed most  of  his  greater  works.  He  not  only  wrote 
on  'dialectics  and  logic,  but  also  on  physics  in  its 
various  departments.  His  work  on  "The  History  of 
Animals "  was  deemed  so  important  that  his  royal 
pupil  Alexander  presented  him  with  eight  hundred 
talents  —  an  enormous  sum  —  for  the  collection  of 
materials.  He  also  wrote  on  ethics  and  politics,  his- 
tory and  rhetoric,  —  pouring  out  letters,  poems,  and 
speeches,  three-fourths  of  which  are  lost.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  voluminous  writers  of  antiquity,  and  prob- 
ably is  the  most  learned  man  whose  writings  have  come 


224  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

down  to  us.  Nor  has  any  one  of  the  ancients  exercised 
upon  the  thinking  of  succeeding  ages  so  wide  an  influ- 
ence. He  was  an  oracle  until  the  revival  of  learning. 
Hegel  says:  — 

"Aristotle  penetrated  into  the  whole  mass,  into  every 
department  of  the  miiverse  of  things,  and  subjected  to  the 
comprehension  its  scattered  wealth ;  and  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  philosophical  sciences  owe  to  him  their  separation 
and  commencement." 

He  is  also  the  father  of  the  history  of  philosophy, 
since  he  gives  an  historical  review  of  the  way  in  which 
the  subject  has  been  hitherto  treated  by  the  earlier 
philosophers.     Says  Adolph  Stahr :  — 

"  Plato  made  the  external  world  the  region  of  the  incom- 
plete and  bad,  of  the  contradictory  and  the  false,  and  recog- 
nized absolute  truth  only  in  the  eternal  immutable  ideas. 
Aristotle  laid  down  the  proposition  that  the  idea,  which 
cannot  of  itself  fashion  itself  into  reality,  is  powerless,  and 
has  only  a  potential  existence ;  and  that  it  becomes  a  living 
reality  only  by  realizing  itself  in  a  creative  manner  by 
means  of  its  own  energj\" 

There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  Aristotle's  marvellous 
power  of  systematizing.  Collecting  together  all  the 
results  of  ancient  speculation,  he  so  combined  them 
into  a  co-ordinate  system  that  for  a  thousand  years  he 
reigned  supreme  in  the  schools.     From  a  literary  point 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  225 

of  view,  Plato  was  doubtless  his  superior;  but  Plato 
was  a  poet,  making  philosophy  divine  and  musical, 
while  Aristotle's  investigations  spread  over  a  far 
wider  range.  He  differed  from  Plato  chiefly  in  rela- 
tion to  the  doctrine  of  ideas,  without  however  resolv- 
ing the  difficulty  which  divided  them.  As  he  made 
matter  to  be  the  eternal  ground  of  phenomena,  he 
reduced  the  notion  of  it  to  a  precision  it  never 
before  enjoyed,  and  established  thereby  a  necessary 
element  in  human  science.  But  being  bound  to  mat- 
ter, he  did  not  soar,  as  Plato  did,  into  the  higher 
regions  of  speculation ;  nor  did  he  entertain  as  lofty 
views  of  God  or  of  immortality.  Neither  did  he 
have  as  high  an  ideal  of  human  life;  his  definition 
of  the  highest  good  was  a  perfect  practical  activity 
in  a  perfect  life. 

With  Aristotle  closed  the  great  Socratic  movement 
in  the  history  of  speculation.  When  Socrates  appeared 
there  was  a  general  prevalence  of  scepticism,  arising 
from  the  unsatisfactory  speculations  respecting  Nature. 
He  removed  this  scepticism  by  inventing  a  new  method 
of  investigation,  and  by  withdrawing  the  mind  from  the 
contemplation  of  Nature  to  the  study  of  man  himself. 
He  bade  men  to  look  inward.  Plato  accepted  his 
method,  but  applied  it  more  universally.  Like  Soc- 
rates, however,  ethics  were  the  great  subject  of  his 
inquiries,  to   which   physics   were   only   subordinate. 


226  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

The  problem  he  sought  to  solve  was  the  way  to  live 
like  the  Deity ;  he  would  contemplate  truth  as  the 
great  aim  of  life.  With  Aristotle,  ethics  formed  only 
one  branch  of  attention  ;  his  main  inquiries  were  in 
reference  to  physics  and  metaphysics.  He  thus,  by 
bringing  these  into  the  region  of  inquiry,  paved  the 
way  for  a  new  epoch  of  scepticism. 

Both  Plato  and  Aristotle  taught  that  reason  alone 
can  form  science ;  but,  as  we  have  said,  Aristotle 
differed  from  his  master  respecting  the  theory  of 
ideas.  He  did  not  deny  to  ideas  a  subjective  exist- 
ence, but  he  did  deny  that  they  have  an  objective 
existence.  He  maintained  that  individual  things 
alone  m5^;  and  if  individuals  alone  exist,  they  can 
be  known  only  by  sensation.  Sensation  thus  becomes 
the  basis  of  knowledge.  Plato  made  reason  the  basis 
of  knowledge,  but  Aristotle  made  experience  that  basis. 
Plato  directed  man  to  the  contemplation  of  Ideas ; 
Aristotle,  to  the  observation  of  Nature.  Instead  of 
proceeding  synthetically  and  dialectically  like  Plato, 
he  pursues  an  analytic  course.  His  method  is  hence 
'inductive,  —  the  derivation  of  certain  principles  from 
a  sum  of  given  facts  and  phenomena.  It  would  seem 
that  positive  science  began  with  Aristotle,  since  he 
maintained  that  experience  furnishes  the  principles  of 
every  science ;  but  while  his  conception  was  just, 
there    was    not    at    that    time    a    sufficient    amount 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  227 

of  experience  from  which  to  generalize  with  effect. 
It  is  only  a  most  extensive  and  exhaustive  examina- 
tion of  the  accuracy  of  a  proposition  which  will 
warrant  secure  reasoning  upon  it.  Aristotle  reasoned 
without  sufficient  certainty  of  the  major  premise  of 
his  syllogisms. 

Aristotle  was  the  father  of  logic,  and  Hegel  and 
Kant  think  there  has  been  no  improvement  upon  it 
since  his  day.  This  became  to  him  the  real  organon 
of  science.  "  He  supposed  it  was  not  merely  the  in- 
strument of  thought,  but  the  instrument  of  investiga- 
tion." Hence  it  was  futile  for  purposes  of  discovery, 
although  important  to  aid  processes  of  thought.  In- 
duction and  syllogism  are  the  two  great  features  of 
his  system  of  logic.  The  one  sets  out  from  particu- 
lars already  known  to  arrive  at  a  conclusion ;  the 
other  sets  out  from  some  general  principle  to  arrive 
at  particulars.  The  latter  more  particularly  charac- 
terized his  logic,  which  he  presented  in  sixteen  forms, 
the  whole  evincing  much  ingenuity  and  skill  in  con- 
struction, and  presenting  at  the  same  time  a  useful 
dialectical  exercise.  This  syllogistic  process  of  rea- 
soning would  be  incontrovertible,  if  the  general  were 
better  known  than  the  particular ;  but  it  is  only  by 
induction,  which  proceeds  from  the  world  of  experi- 
ence, that  we  reach  the  higher  world  of  cognition. 
Thus  Aristotle  made  speculation  subordinate  to  logi- 


228  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

cal  distinctions,  and  his  system,  when  carried  out  by 
the  mediaeval  Schoolmen,  led  to  a  spirit  of  useless 
quibbling.  Instead  of  interrogating  Nature  they  in- 
terrogated their  own  minds,  and  no  great  discoveries 
were  made.  From  want  of  proper  knowledge  of 
the  conditions  of  scientific  inquiry,  the  method  of 
Aristotle  became  fruitless  for  him ;  but  it  was  the 
key  by  which  future  investigators  were  enabled  to 
classify  and  utilize  their  vastly  greater  collection  of 
facts  and  materials. 

Though  Aristotle  wrote  in  a  methodical  manner,  his 
writings  exhibit  great  parsimony  of  language.  There 
is  no  fascination  in  his  style.  It  is  without  orna- 
ment, and  very  condensed.  His  merit  consisted  in 
great  logical  precision  and  scrupulous  exactness  in 
the  employment  of  terms. 

Philosophy,  as  a  great  system  of  dialectics,  as  an 
analysis  of  the  power  and  faculties  of  the  mind,  as 
a  method  to  pursue  inquiries,  culminated  in  Aristotle. 
He  completed  the  great  fabric  of  which  Thales  laid 
the  foundation.  The  subsequent  schools  of  philosophy 
directed  attention  to  ethical  and  practical  questions, 
rather  than  to  intellectual  phenomena.  The  Sceptics, 
like  Pyrrho,  had  only  negative  doctrines,  and  held  in 
disdain  those  inquiries  which  sought  to  penetrate  the 
mysteries  of  existence.  They  did  not  believe  that 
absolute  truth  was  attainable  by  man  ;  and  they  at- 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  229 

tacked  the  prevailing  systems  with  great  plausibility. 
They  pointed  out  the  uncertainty  of  things,  and  the 
folly  of  striving  to  comprehend  them. 

The  Epicureans  despised  the  investigations  of  phi- 
losophy, since  in  their  view  these  did  not  contribute 
to  happiness.  The  subject  of  their  inquiries  was  hap- 
piness, not  truth.  What  will  promote  this  ?  was  the 
subject  of  their  speculation.  Epicurus,  born  342  b.  c, 
contended  that  pleasure  was  happiness  ;  that  pleasure 
should  be  sought  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  with  a  view 
to  the  happiness  of  life  obtained  by  it.  He  taught 
that  happiness  was  inseparable  from  virtue,  and  that 
its  enjoyments  should  be  limited.  He  was  averse  to 
costly  pleasures,  and  regarded  contentedness  with  a  lit- 
tle to  be  a  great  good.  He  placed  wealth  not  in  great 
possessions,  but  in  few  wants.  He  sought  to  widen 
the  domain  of  pleasure  and  narrow  that  of  pain,  and 
regarded  a  passionless  state  of  life  as  the  highest.  Nor 
did  he  dread  death,  which  was  deliverance  from  mis- 
ery, as  the  Buddhists  think.  Epicurus  has  been  much 
misunderstood,  and  his  doctrines  were  subsequently 
perverted,  especially  when  the  arts  of  life  were  brought 
into  the  service  of  luxury,  and  a  gross  materialism  was 
the  great  feature  of  society.  Epicurus  had  much  of 
the  spirit  of  a  practical  philosopher,  although  very 
little  of  the  earnest  cravings  of  a  religious  man.  He 
himself  led  a  virtuous  life,  because  he  thought  it  was 


230  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

wiser  and  better  and  more  productive  of  happiness 
to  be  virtuous,  not  because  it  was  bis  duty.  His 
writings  were  very  voluminous,  and  in  bis  tranquil 
garden  he  led  a  peaceful  life  of  study  and  enjoy- 
ment. His  followers,  and  they  were  numerous,  were 
led  into  luxury  and  efifeminacy,  —  as  was  to  be  ex- 
pected from  a  sceptical  and  irreligious  philosophy, 
the  great  principle  of  which  was  that  whatever  is 
pleasant  should  be  the  object  of  existence.  Sir  James 
Mackintosh  says :  — 

"To  Epicurus  we  owe  the  general  concurrence  of  reflect- 
ing men  in  succeeding  times  in  the  important  truth  that 
men  cannot  be  happy  without  a  virtuous  frame  of  mind 
and  course  of  life,  —  a  truth  of  inestimable  value,  not  pecu- 
liar to  the  Epicureans,  but  placed  by  their  exaggerations  in 
a  stronger  light ;  a  truth,  it  must  be  added,  of  less  impor- 
tance as  a  motive  to  right  conduct  than  to  the  completeness 
of  moral  theory,  which,  however,  it  is  very  far  from  solely 
constituting.  With  that  truth  the  Epicureans  blended  an- 
other position,  —  that  because  virtue  promotes  happiness, 
every  act  of  virtue  must  be  done  in  order  to  promote  the 
happiness  of  the  agent.  Although,  therefore,  he  has  the 
merit  of  having  more  strongly  inculcated  the  connection 
of  virtue  with  happiness,  yet  his  doctrine  is  justly  charged 
with  indisposing  the  mind  to  those  exalted  and  generous 
sentiments  without  which  no  pure,  elevated,  bold,  or  tender 
virtues  can  exist." 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  231 

The  Stoics  were  a  large  and  celebrated  sect  of  phi- 
losophers; but  they  added  nothing  to  the  domain  of 
thought,  —  they  created  no  system,  they  invented  no 
new  method,  they  were  led  into  no  new  psychological 
inquiries.  Their  inquiries  were  chiefly  ethical ;  and 
since  ethics  are  a  great  part  of  the  system  of  Greek 
philosophy,  the  Stoics  are  well  worthy  of  attention. 
Some  of  the  greatest  men  of  antiquity  are  numbered 
among  them,  —  like  Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Marcus 
Aurelius.  The  philosophy  they  taught  was  morality, 
and  this  was  eminently  practical  and  also  elevated. 

The  founder  of  this  sect,  Zeno,  was  born,  it  is  sup- 
posed, on  the  island  of  Cyprus,  about  the  year  350  B.  c. 
He  was  the  son  of  wealthy  parents,  but  was  reduced  to 
poverty  by  misfortune.  He  was  so  good  a  man,  and  so 
profoundly  revered  by  the  Athenians,  that  they  in- 
trusted to  him  the  keys  of  their  citadel.  He  lived 
in  a  degenerate  age,  when  scepticism  and  sensuality 
were  eating  out  the  life  and  vigor  of  Grecian  society, 
when  Greek  civilization  was  rapidly  passing  away, 
when  ancient  creeds  had  lost  their  majesty,  and  gen- 
eral levity  and  folly  overspread  the  land.  Deeply 
impressed  with  the  prevailing  laxity  of  morals  and 
the  absence  of  religion,  he  lifted  up  his  voice  more 
as  a  reformer  than  as  an  inquirer  after  truth,  and 
taught  for  more  than  fifty  years  in  a  place  called  the 
Stoa,  "  the  Porch,"  which  had  once  been  the  resort  of 


232  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

the  poets.  Hence  the  name  of  his  school.  He  was 
chiefly  absorbed  with  ethical  questions,  although  he 
studied  profoundly  the  systems  of  the  old  philosophers. 
"  The  Sceptics  had  attacked  both  perception  and  rea- 
son. They  had  shown  that  perception  is  after  all 
based  upon  appearance,  and  appearance  is  not  a  cer- 
tainty ;  and  they  showed  that  reason  is  unable  to 
distinguish  between  appearance  and  certainty,  since  it 
had  nothing  but  phenomena  to  build  upon,  and  since 
there  is  no  criterion  to  apply  to  reason  itself."  Then 
they  proclaimed  philosophy  a  failure,  and  without 
foundation.  But  Zeno,  taking  a  stand  on  common- 
sense,  fought  for  morality,  as  did  Buddha  before  him, 
and  long  after  him  Eeid  and  Beattie,  when  they 
combated  the  scepticism  of  Hume. 

Philosophy,  according  to  Zeno  and  other  Stoics,  was 
intimately  connected  with  the  duties  of  practical  life. 
The  contemplation,  meditation,  and  thought  recom- 
mended by  Plato  and  Aristotle  seemed  only  a  covert 
recommendation  of  selfish  enjoyment.  The  wisdom 
which  it  should  be  the  aim  of  life  to  attain  is  vir- 
tue ;  and  virtue  is  to  live  harmoniously  with  Nature. 
To  live  harmoniously  with  Nature  is  to  exclude  all 
personal  ends ;  hence  pleasure  is  to  be  disregarded, 
and  pain  is  to  be  despised.  And  as  all  moral  action 
must  be  in  harmony  with  Nature  the  law  of  destiny 
is  supreme,  and  all  things  move  according  to  immu- 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  233 

table  fate.  With  the  predominant  tendency  to  the 
universal  which  characterized  their  system,  the  Stoics 
taught  that  the  sage  ought  to  regard  himself  as  a 
citizen  of  the  world  rather  than  of  any  particular 
city  or  state.  They  made  four  things  to  he  indis- 
pensable to  virtue,  —  a  knowledge  of  good  and  evil, 
which  is  the  province  of  the  reason;  temperance,  a 
knowledge  of  the  due  regulation  of  the  sensual  pas- 
sions ;  fortitude,  a  conviction  that  it  is  good  to  suffer 
what  is  necessary ;  and  justice,  or  acquaintance  with 
what  ought  to  be  to  every  individual.  They  made 
perfection  necessary  to  virtue ;  hence  the  severity  of 
their  system.  The  perfect  sage,  according  to  them, 
is  raised  above  all  influence  of  external  events ;  he 
submits  to  the  law  of  destiny;  he  is  exempt  from 
desire  and  fear,  joy  or  sorrow;  he  is  not  governed 
even  by  what  he  is  exposed  to  necessarily,  like  sorrow 
and  pain;  he  is  free  from  the  restraints  of  passion; 
he  is  like  a  god  in  his  mental  placidity.  Nor  must  the 
sage  live  only  for  himself,  but  for  others  also ;  he  is  a 
member  of  the  whole  body  of  mankind.  He  ought  to 
marry,  and  to  take  part  in  public  affairs ;  but  he  is  to 
attack  error  and  vice  with  uncompromising  sternness, 
and  will  never  weakly  give  way  to  compassion  or  for- 
giveness. Yet  with  this  ideal  the  Stoics  were  forced 
to  admit  that  virtue,  like  true  knowledge,  although 
theoretically  attainable  is  practically  beyond  the  reach 


234  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

of  man.  They  were  discontented  with  themselves 
and  with  all  around  them,  and  looked  upon  all  insti- 
tutions as  corrupt.  They  had  a  profound  contempt 
for  their  age,  and  for  what  modern  society  calls  "  suc- 
cess in  life ; "  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  prac- 
tised a  lofty  and  stern  virtue  in  their  degenerate  times. 
Their  God  was  made  subject  to  Fate;  and  he  was  a 
material  god,  synonymous  with  Kature.  Thus  their 
system  was  pantheistic.  But  they  maintained  the  dig- 
nity of  reason,  and  sought  to  attain  to  virtues  which 
it  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  fully  to  reach. 

Zeno  lived  to  the  extreme  old  age  of  ninety-eight, 
although  his  constitution  was  not  strong.  He  retained 
his  powers  by  great  abstemiousness,  living  chiefly  on 
figs,  honey,  and  bread.  He  was  a  modest  and  retiring 
man,  seldom  mingling  with  a  crowd,  or  admitting  the 
society  of  more  than  two  or  three  friends  at  a  time. 
He  was  as  plain  in  his  dress  as  he  was  frugal  in  his 
habits,  —  a  man  of  great  decorum  and  propriety  of 
manners,  resembling  noticeably  in  his  life  and  doc- 
trines the  Chinese  sage  Confucius.  And  yet  this  good 
man,  a  pattern  to  the  loftiest  characters  of  his  age, 
strangled  himself.  Suicide  was  not  deemed  a  crime 
by  his  followers,  among  whom  were  some  of  the  most 
faultless  men  of  antiquity,  especially  among  the  Ro- 
mans. The  doctrines  of  Zeno  were  never  popular,  and 
were  confined  to  a  small  though  influential  party. 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  235 

With  the  Stoics  ended  among  the  Greeks  all  inquiry 
of  a  philosophical  nature  worthy  of  especial  mention, 
until  centuries  later,  when  philosophy  was  revived  in 
the  Christian  schools  of  Alexandria,  where  the  Hebrew 
element  of  faith  was  united  with  the  Greek  ideal 
of  reason.  The  struggles  of  so  many  great  thinkers, 
from  Thales  to  Aristotle,  all  ended  in  doubt  and  in 
despair.  It  was  discovered  that  all  of  them  were 
wrong,  or  rather  partial ;  and  their  error  was  without 
a  remedy,  until  "the  fulness  of  time"  should  reveal 
more  clearly  the  plan  of  the  great  temple  of  Truth, 
in  which  they  were  laying  foundation  stones. 

The  bright  and  glorious  period  of  Greek  philosophy 
was  from  Socrates  to  Aristotle.  Philosophical  in- 
quiries began  about  the  origin  of  things,  and  ended 
with  an  elaborate  systematization  of  the  forms  of 
thought,  which  was  the  most  magnificent  triumph  that 
the  unaided  intellect  of  man  ever  achieved.  Socrates 
does  not  found  a  school,  nor  elaborate  a  system.  He 
reveals  most  precious  truths,  and  stimulates  the  youth 
who  listen  to  his  instructions  by  the  doctrine  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  man  to  pursue  a  knowledge  of  himself, 
which  is  to  be  sought  in  that  divine  reason  which 
dwells  within  him,  and  which  also  rules  the  world. 
He  believes  in  science ;  he  loves  truth  for  its  own 
sake ;  he  loves  virtue,  which  consists  in  the  knowledge 

of  the  good. 

vol..  I.  — 14 


236  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

Plato  seizes  the  weapons  of  his  great  master,  and  is 
imbued  with  his  spirit.  He  is  full  of  hope  for  science 
and  humanity.  With  soaring  boldness  he  directs  his 
inquiries  to  futurity,  dissatisfied  with  the  present,  and 
cherishing  a  fond  hope  of  a  better  existence.  He 
speculates  on  God  and  the  soul.  He  is  not  much 
interested  in  physical  phenomena ;  he  does  not,  like 
Thales,  strive  to  find  out  the  beginning  of  all  things, 
but  the  highest  good,  by  which  his  immortal  soul  may 
be  refreshed  and  prepared  for  the  future  life,  in  which 
he  firmly  believes.  The  sensible  is  an  impenetrable 
empire;  but  ideas  are  certitudes,  and  upon  these  he 
dwells  with  rapt  and  mystical  enthusiasm,  —  a  great 
poetical  rhapsodist,  severe  dialectician  as  he  is,  be- 
lieving in  truth  and  beauty  and  goodness. 

Then  Aristotle,  following  out  the  method  of  his 
teachers,  attempts  to  exhaust  experience,  and  directs 
his  inquiries  into  the  outward  world  of  sense  and 
observation,  but  all  with  the  view  of  discovering  from 
phenomena  the  unconditional  truth,  in  which  he  too 
believes.  But  everything  in  this  world  is  fleeting  and 
transitory,  and  therefore  it  is  not  easy  to  arrive  at 
truth.  A  cold  doubt  creeps  into  the  experimental 
mind  of  Aristotle,  with  all  his  learning  and  his  logic. 

The  Epicureans  arise.  Misreading  or  corrupting  the 
purer  teaching  of  their  founder,  they  place  their  hopes 
in  sensual  enjoyment     They  despair  of  truth. 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  237 

But  the  world  will  not  be  abandoned  to  despair. 
The  Stoics  rebuke  the  impiety  which  is  blended  with 
sensualism,  and  place  their  hopes  on  virtue.  Yet  it  is 
unattainable  virtue,  while  their  God  is  not  a  moral 
governor,  but  subject  to  necessity. 

Thus  did  those  old  giants  grope  about,  for  they  did 
not  know  the  God  who  was  revealed  unto  the  more 
spiritual  sense  of  Abraham,  Moses,  David,  and  Isaiah. 
And  yet  with  all  their  errors  they  were  the  greatest 
benefactors  of  the  ancient  world.  They  gave  dignity 
to  intellectual  inquiries,  while  by  their  lives  they  set 
examples  of  a  pure  morality. 

The  Eomans  added  absolutely  nothing  to  the  philo- 
sophy of  the  Greeks.  Nor  were  they  much  interested 
in  any  speculative  inquiries.  It  was  only  the  ethical 
views  of  the  old  sages  which  had  attraction  or  force 
to  them.  They  were  too  material  to  love  pure  sub- 
jective inquiries.  They  had  conquered  the  land ;  they 
disdained  the  empire  of  the  air. 

There  were  doubtless  students  of  the  Greek  philoso- 
phy among  the  Eomans,  perhaps  as  early  as  Cato  the 
Censor.  But  there  were  only  two  persons  of  note  in 
Eome  who  wrote  philosophy,  till  the  time  of  Cicero,  — 
Auraf anius  and  Eubinus,  —  and  these  were  Epicureans. 

Cicero  was  the  first  to  systematize  the  philosophy 
which  contributed  so  greatly  to  his  intellectual  culture. 


238  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

But  even  lie  added  nothing;  he  was  only  a  com- 
mentator and  expositor.  Nor  did  he  seek  to  found 
a  system  or  a  school,  but  merely  to  influence  and 
instruct  men  of  his  own  rank.  Those  subjects  which 
had  the  greatest  attraction  for  the  Grecian  schools 
Cicero  regarded  as  beyond  the  power  of  human  cog- 
nition, and  therefore  looked  upon  the  practical  as 
the  proper  domain  of  human  inquiry.  Yet  he  held 
logic  in  great  esteem,  as  furnishing  rules  for  method- 
ical investigation.  He  adopted  the  doctrine  of  Socrates 
as  to  the  pursuit  of  moral  good,  and  regarded  the 
duties  which  grow  out  of  the  relations  of  human 
society  as  preferable  to  those  of  pursuing  scientific 
researches.  He  had  a  great  contempt  for  knowledge 
which  could  lead  neither  to  the  clear  apprehension  of 
certitude  nor  to  practical  applications.  He  thought 
it  impossible  to  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  God,  or 
the  nature  of  the  soul,  or  the  origin  of  the  world ; 
and  thus  he  was  led  to  look  upon  the  sensible  and 
the  present  as  of  more  importance  than  inconclusive 
inductions,  or  deductions  from  a  truth  not  satisfactorily 
established. 

Cicero  was  an  eclectic,  seizing  on  what  was  true 
and  clear  in  the  ancient  systems,  and  disregarding 
what  was  simply  a  matter  of  speculation.  This  is 
especially  seen  in  his  treatise  "De  Finibus  Bonorum 
et  Malorum,"  in  which  the  opinions  of  all  the  Grecian 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  239 

schools  concerning  the  supreme  good  are  expounded 
and  compared.  Nor  does  he  hesitate  to  declare  that 
the  highest  happiness  consists  in  the  knowledge  of 
Nature  and  science,  which  is  the  true  source  of  pleas- 
ure both  to  gods  and  men.  Yet  these  are  but  hopes, 
in  which  it  does  not  become  us  to  indulge.  It  is  the 
actual,  the  real,  the  practical,  which  pre-eminently 
claims  attention,  —  in  other  words,  the  knowledge 
which  will  furnish  man  with  a  guide  and  rule  of  life. 
Even  in  the  consideration  of  moral  questions  Cicero 
is  pursued  by  the  conflict  of  opinions,  although  in  this 
department  he  is  most  at  home.  The  points  he  is 
most  anxious  to  establish  are  the  doctrines  of  God 
and  the  soul.  These  are  most  fully  treated  in  his 
essay  "  De  Natura  Deorum,"  in  which  he  submits  the 
doctrines  of  the  Epicureans  and  the  Stoics  to  the 
objections  of  the  Academy.  He  admits  that  man  is 
unable  to  form  true  conceptions  of  God,  but  acknowl- 
edges the  necessity  of  assuming  one  supreme  God  as 
the  creator  and  ruler  of  all  things,  moving  all  things, 
remote  from  all  mortal  mixture,  and  endued  with  eter- 
nal motion  in  himself.  He  seems  to  believe  in  a  divine 
providence  ordering  good  to  man,  in  the  soul's  immor- 
tality, in  free-will,  in  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  in 
the  dominion  of  reason,  in  the  restraint  of  the  passions 
as  necessary  to  virtue,  in  a  life  of  public  utility,  in  an 
immutable  morality,  in  the  imitation  of  the  divine. 


240  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

Thus  there  is  little  of  original  thought  in  the  moral 
theories  of  Cicero,  which  are  the  result  of  observation 
rather  than  of  any  philosophical  principle.  We  might 
enumerate  his  various  opinions,  and  show  what  an 
enlightened  mind  he  possessed;  but  this  would  not 
be  the  development  of  philosophy.  His  views,  inter- 
esting as  they  are,  and  generally  wise  and  lofty, 
do  not  indicate  any  progress  of  the  science.  He 
merely  repeats  earlier  doctrines.  These  were  not 
without  their  utility,  since  they  had  great  influence 
on  the  Latin  fathers  of  the  Christian  Church.  He 
was  esteemed  for  his  general  enlightenment.  He 
softened  down  the  extreme  views  of  the  great  thinkers 
before  his  day,  and  clearly  unfolded  what  had  be- 
come obscured.  He  was  a  critic  of  philosophy,  an 
expositor  whom  we  can  scarcely  spare. 

If  anybody  advanced  philosophy  among  the  Ro- 
mans it  was  Epictetus,  and  even  he  only  in  the  realm 
of  ethics.  Quintius  Sextius,  in  the  time  of  Augustus, 
had  revived  the  Pythagorean  doctrines.  Seneca  had 
recommended  the  severe  morality  of  the  Stoics,  but 
added  nothing  that  was  not  previously  known. 

The  greatest  light  among  the  Romans  was  the  Phry^ 
gian  slave  Epictetus,  who  was  born  about  fifty  years 
after  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  taught  in  the  time 
of  the  Emperor  Domitian.  Though  he  did  not  leave 
any   written   treatises,   his   doctrines   were   preserved 


SEEKING  AFTER    TRUTH.  241 

and  handed  down  by  his  disciple  Arrian,  who  had  for 
him  the  reverence  that  Plato  had  for  Socrates.  The 
loftiness  of  his  recorded  views  has  made  some  to  think 
that  he  must  have  been  indebted  to  Christianity,  for 
no  one  before  him  revealed  precepts  so  much  in  accor- 
dance with  its  spirit.  He  was  a  Stoic,  but  he  held 
in  the  highest  estimation  Socrates  and  Plato.  It  is 
not  for  the  solution  of  metaphysical  questions  that  he 
was  remarkable.  He  was  not  a  dialectician,  but  a 
moralist,  and  as  such  takes  the  highest  ground  of  all 
the  old  inquirers  after  truth.  With  him,  as  to  Cicero 
and  Seneca,  philosophy  is  the  wisdom  of  life.  He 
sets  no  value  on  logic,  nor  much  on  physics ;  but  he 
reveals  sentiments  of  great  simplicity  and  grandeur. 
His  great  idea  is  the  purification  of  the  soul.  He 
believes  in  the  severest  self-denial;  he  would  guard 
against  the  siren  spells  of  pleasure;  he  would  make 
men  feel  that  in  order  to  be  good  they  must  first  feel 
that  they  are  evil.  He  condemns  suicide,  although  it 
had  been  defended  by  the  Stoics.  He  would  complain 
of  no  one,  not  even  as  to  injustice;  he  would  not 
injure  his  enemies  ;  he  would  pardon  all  offences ;  he 
would  feel  universal  compassion,  since  men  sin  from 
ignorance ;  he  would  not  easily  blame,  since  we  have 
none  to  condemn  but  ourselves.  He  would  not  strive 
after  honor  or  office,  since  we  put  ourselves  in  sub- 
jection to  that  we  seek  or  prize ;  he  would  constantly 


242  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

bear  in  mind  that  all  things  are  transitory,  and  that 
they  are  not  our  own.  He  would  bear  evils  with 
patience,  even  as  he  would  practise  self-denial  of 
pleasure.  He  would,  in  short,  be  calm,  free,  keep  in 
subjection  his  passions,  avoid  self-indulgence,  and  prac- 
tise a  broad  charity  and  benevolence.  He  felt  that  he 
owed  all  to  God,  —  that  all  was  his  gift,  and  that  we 
should  thus  live  in  accordance  with  his  will;  that 
we  should  be  grateful  not  only  for  our  bodies,  but 
for  our  souls  and  reason,  by  which  we  attain  to  great- 
ness. And  if  God  has  given  us  such  a  priceless  gift, 
we  should  be  contented,  and  not  even  seek  to  alter 
our  external  relations,  which  are  doubtless  for  the 
best.  We  should  wish,  indeed,  for  only  what  God 
wills  and  sends,  and  we  should  avoid  pride  and 
haughtiness  as  well  as  discontent,  and  seek  to  fulfil 
our  allotted  part. 

Such  were  the  moral  precepts  of  Epictetus,  in  which 
we  see  the  nearest  approach  to  Christianity  that  had 
been  made  in  the  ancient  world,  although  there  is  no 
proof  or  probability  that  he  knew  anything  of  Christ 
or  the  Christians.  And  these  sublime  truths  had  a 
great  influence,  especially  on  the  mind  of  the  most 
lofty  and  pure  of  all  the  Eoman  emperors,  Marcus 
Aurelius,  who  lived  the  principles  he  had  learned  from 
the  slave,  and  whose  "Thoughts"  are  stUl  held  in 
admiration. 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  243 

Thus  did  the  philosophic  speculations  about  the 
beginning  of  things  lead  to  elaborate  systems  of 
thought,  and  end  in  practical  rules  of  life,  until  in 
spirit  they  had,  with  Epictetus,  harmonized  with  many 
of  the  revealed  truths  which  Christ  and  his  Apostles 
laid  down  for  the  regeneration  of  the  world.  Who 
cannot  see  in  the  inquiries  of  the  old  Philosopher,  — 
whether  into  Nature,  or  the  operations  of  mind,  or 
the  existence  of  God,  or  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
or  the  way  to  happiness  and  virtue,  —  a  magnificent 
triumph  of  human  genius,  such  as  has  been  exhibited 
in  no  other  department  of  human  science  ?  Nay,  who 
does  not  rejoice  to  see  in  this  slow  but  ever-advancing 
development  of  man's  comprehension  of  the  truth  the 
inspiration  of  that  Divine  Teacher,  that  Holy  Spirit, 
which  shall  at  last  lead  man  into  all  truth? 

We  regret  that  our  limits  preclude  a  more  extended 
view  of  the  various  systems  which  the  old  sages  pro- 
pounded, —  systems  full  of  errors  yet  also  marked  by 
important  gains,  but,  whether  false  or  true,  showing 
a  marvellous  reach  of  the  human  understanding.  Mod- 
em researches  have  discarded  many  opinions  that 
were  highly  valued  in  their  day,  yet  philosophy  in 
its  methods  of  reasoning  is  scarcely  advanced  since 
the  time  of  Aristotle,  while  the  subjects  which  agi- 
tated the  Grecian  schools  have  been  from  time  to  time 
revived  and  rediscussed,  and  are  still  unsettled.     If 


244  ANCIENT  PHILOSOPHY. 

any  intellectual  pursuit  has  gone  round  in  perpetual 
circles,  incapable  apparently  of  progression  or  rest,  it 
is  that  glorious  study  of  philosophy  which  has  tasked 
more  than  any  other  the  mightiest  intellects  of  this 
world,  and  which,  progressive  or  not,  will  never  be  re- 
linquished without  the  loss  of  what  is  most  valuable 
in  human  culture. 


AUTHORITIES. 

FoK  original  authorities  in  reference  to  the  matter  of  this  chapter, 
read  Diogenes  Laertius's  Lives  of  the  Philosophers ;  the  Writings 
of  Plato  and  Aristotle ;  Cicero,  De  Natura  Deorum,  De  Oratore, 
De  Officiis,  De  Divinatione,  De  Finibus,  Tusculanse  Disputationes ; 
Xenophon,  Memorabilia ;  Boethius,  De  Consolatione  Philosophise ; 
Lucretius. 

The  great  modem  authorities  are  the  Germans,  and  these  are  very 
numerous.  Among  the  most  famous  writers  on  the  history  of  phi- 
losophy are  Brucker,  Hegel,  Brandis,  I.  G.  Buhle,  Tennemann, 
Bitter,  Blessing,  Schwegler,  Hermann,  Meiners,  Stallbaum,  and 
Spiegel.  The  History  of  Bitter  is  well  translated,  and  is  always 
learned  and  suggestive.  Tennemann,  translated  by  Morell,  is  a  good 
manual,  brief  but  clear.  In  connection  with  the  writings  of  the  Ger- 
mans, the  great  work  of  the  French  Cousin  should  be  consulted. 

The  English  historians  of  ancient  philosophy  are  not  so  numerous 
as  the  Germans.  The  work  of  Enfield  is  based  on  Brucker,  or  is 
rather  an  abridgment.    Archer  Butler's  Lectures  are  suggestive  and 


SEEKING  AFTER   TRUTH.  245 

able,  but  discursive  and  vague.  Grote  has  written  learnedly  on  Soc- 
rates and  the  other  great  lights.  Lewes's  Biographical  History  of 
Philosophy  has  the  merit  of  clearnesSj  and  is  very  interesting,  but 
rather  superficial.  See  also  Thomas  Stanley's  History  of  Philoso- 
phy, and  the  articles  in  Smith's  Dictionary  on  the  leading  ancient 
philosophers.  J.  W.  Donaldson's  continuation  of  K.  O.  Miiller's 
History  of  the  Literature  of  Ancient  Greece  is  learned,  and  should 
be  consulted  with  Thompson's  Notes  on  Archer  Butler.  Schleier- 
macher,  on  Socrates,  translated  by  Bishop  Thirlwall,  is  well  worth 
attention.  There  are  also  fine  articles  in  the  Encyclopaedias  Britan- 
nica  and  Metropolitana. 


SOCRATES. 


470-399  B.C. 


GREEK    PHILOSOPHY. 


SOCRATES. 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY. 

np^O  Socrates  the  world  owes  a  new  method  in  phi- 
-^  losophy  and  a  great  example  in  morals :  and  it 
would  be  difficult  to  settle  whether  his  influence  has 
been  greater  as  a  sage  or  as  a  moralist.  In  either  hght 
he  is  one  of  the  august  names  of  history.  He  has  been 
venerated  for  more  than  two  thousand  years  as  a  teacher 
of  wisdom,  and  as  a  martyr  for  the  truths  he  taught. 
He  did  not  commit  his  precious  thoughts  to  writing; 
that  work  was  done  by  his  disciples,  even  as  his  exalted 
worth  has  been  published  by  them,  especially  by  Plato 
and  Xenophon.  And  if  the  Greek  philosophy  did  not 
culminate  in  him,  yet  he  laid  down  those  principles  by 
which  only  it  could  be  advanced.  As  a  system-maker, 
both  Plato  and  Aristotle  were  greater  than  he ;  yet  for 
original  genius  he  was  probably  their  superior,  and  in 
important  respects  he  was  their  master.  As  a  good 
man,  battling  with  infirmities  and  temptations  and 
coming  off  triumphantly,  the  ancient  world  has  fur- 
nished no  prouder  example. 


250  SOCRATES. 


He  was  born  about  470  or  469  years  b.  c,  and 
therefore  may  be  said  to  belong  to  that  brilliant 
age  of  Grecian  literature  and  art  when  Prodicus  was 
teaching  rhetoric,  and  Democritus  was  speculating  about 
the  doctrine  of  atoms,  and  Phidias  was  ornamenting 
temples,  and  Alcibiades  was  giving  banquets,  and  Aris- 
tophanes was  writing  comedies,  and  Euripides  was  com- 
posing tragedies,  and  Aspasia  was  setting  fashions,  and 
Cimon  was  fighting  battles,  and  Pericles  was  making 
Athens  tne  centre  of  Grecian  civilization.  But  he  died 
thirty  years  after  Pericles;  so  that  what  is  most  interest- 
ing in  his  great  career  took  place  during  and  after  the 
Peloponnesian  war,  —  an  age  still  interesting,  but  not 
80  brilliant  as  the  one  which  immediately  preceded  it. 
It  was  the  age  of  the  Sophists,  —  those  popular  but 
superficial  teachers  who  claimed  to  be  the  most  ad- 
vanced of  their  generation;  men  who  were  doubtless 
accomplished,  but  were  cynical,  sceptical,  and  utilita- 
rian, placing  a  high  estimate  on  popular  favor  and  an 
outside  life,  but  very  little  on  pure  subjective  truth  or 
the  wants  of  the  souL  They  were  paid  teachers,  and 
sought  pupils  from  the  sons  of  the  rich, — the  more  emi- 
nent of  them  being  Protagoras,  Gorgias,  Hippias,  and 
Prodicus ;  men  who  travelled  from  city  to  city,  exciting 
great  admiration  for  their  rhetorical  skill,  and  really  im- 
proving the  public  speaking  of  popular  orators.  They 
also  taught  science  to  a  limited  extent,  and  it  was 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  251 

through  them  that  Athenian  youth  mainly  acquired 
what  little  knowledge  they  had  of  arithmetic  and  geom- 
etry. In  loftiness  of  character  they  were  not  equal  to 
those  Ionian  philosophers,  who,  prior  to  Socrates,  in  the 
fifth  century  B,  c,  speculated  on  the  great  problems  of 
the  material  universe,  —  the  origin  of  the  world,  the 
nature  of  matter,  and  the  source  of  power,  —  and  who, 
if  they  did  not  make  discoveries,  yet  evinced  great 
intellectual  force. 

It  was  in  this  sceptical  and  irreligious  age,  when  all 
classes  were  devoted  to  pleasure  and  money-making, 
but  when  there  was  great  cultivation,  especially  in 
arts,  that  Socrates  arose,  whose  "appearance,"  says 
Grote,  "  was  a  moral  phenomenon." 

He  was  the  son  of  a  poor  sculptor,  and  his  mother 
was  a  midwife.  His  family  was  unimportant,  although 
it  belonged  to  an  ancient  Attic  gens.  Socrates  was  res- 
cued from  his  father's  workshop  by  a  wealthy  citizen 
who  perceived  his  genius,  and  who  educated  him  at  his 
own  expense.  He  was  twenty  when  he  conversed  with 
Parmenides  and  Zeno ;  he  was  twenty-eight  when  Phi- 
dias adorned  the  Parthenon ;  he  was  forty  when  he 
fought  at  Potidcca  and  rescued  Alcibiades.  At  this 
period  he  was  most  distinguished  for  his  physical 
strength  and  endurance,  —  a  brave  and  patriotic  soldier, 
insensible  to  heat  and  cold,  and,  though  temperate  in 
his  habits,  capable  of  drinking  more  wine,  without  be- 

VOL.  I.  — 15 


252  SOCRATES. 


coming  intoxicated,  than  anybody  in  Athens.  His 
powerful  physique  and  sensual  nature  inclined  him 
to  self-indulgence,  but  he  early  learned  to  restrain 
both  appetites  and  passions.  His  physiognomy  was 
ugly  and  his  person  repulsive ;  he  was  awkward,  obese, 
and  ungainly;  his  nose  was  flat,  his  lips  were  thick, 
and  his  neck  large;  he  rolled  his  eyes,  went  bare- 
footed, and  wore  a  dirty  old  cloak.  He  spent  his  time 
chiefly  in  the  market-place,  talking  with  everybody, 
old  or  young,  rich  or  poor,  —  soldiers,  politicians,  arti- 
sans, or  students ;  visiting  even  Aspasia,  the  cultivated, 
wealthy  courtesan,  with  whom  he  formed  a  friendship ; 
so  that,  although  he  was  very  poor,  —  his  whole  prop- 
erty being  only  five  minae  (about  fifty  doUars)  a  year, 
<— it  would  seem  he  lived  in  "good  society." 

The  ancient  Pagans  were  not  so  exclusive  and  aristo- 
cratic as  the  Christians  of  our  day,  who  are  ambitious 
of  social  position.  Socrates  never  seemed  to  think 
about  his  social  position  at  all,  and  uniformly  acted 
as  if  he  were  well  known  and  prominent.  He  was 
listened  to  because  he  was  eloquent.  His  conversa- 
tion is  said  to  have  been  charming,  and  even  fascinat- 
ing. He  was  an  original  and  ingenious  man,  different 
from  everybody  else,  and  was  therefore  what  we  call 
"a  character." 

But  there  was  nothing  austere  or  gloomy  about  him. 
Though  lofty  in  his  inquiries,  and  serious  in  his  mind. 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  253 

he  resembled  neither  a  Jewish  prophet  nor  a  mediaeval 
sage  in  his  appearance.  He  looked  rather  like  a  Sile- 
nus,  —  very  witty,  cheerful,  good-natured,  jocose,  and 
disposed  to  make  people  laugh.  He  enjoined  no  aus- 
terities or  penances.  He  was  very  attractive  to  the 
young,  and  tolerant  of  human  infirmities,  even  when 
he  gave  the  best  advice.  He  was  the  most  human  of 
teachers.  Alcibiades  was  completely  fascinated  by  his 
talk,  and  made  good  resolutions. 

His  great  peculiarity  in  conversation  was  to  ask  ques- 
tions, —  sometimes  to  gain  information,  but  oftener  to 
puzzle  and  raise  a  laugh.  He  sought  to  expose  igno- 
rance, when  it  was  pretentious ;  he  made  all  the 
quacks  and  shams  appear  ridiculous.  His  irony  was 
tremendous;  nobody  could  stand  before  his  searching 
and  unexpected  questions,  and  he  made  nearly  every 
one  with  whom  he  conversed  appear  either  as  a  fool 
or  an  ignoramus.  He  asked  his  questions  with  great 
apparent  modesty,  and  thus  drew  a  mesh  over  his 
opponents  from  which  they  could  not  extricate  them- 
selves. His  process  was  the  reductio  ad  absurdunu 
Hence  he  drew  upon  himself  the  wrath  of  the  Sophists, 
He  had  no  intellectual  arrogance,  since  he  professed 
to  know  nothing  himself,  although  he  was  conscious 
of  his  own  intellectual  superiority.  He  was  contented 
to  show  that  others  knew  no  more  than  he.  He  had 
no  passion  for  admiration,  no  political  ambition,  no 


254  SOCRATES. 


desire  for  social  distinction ;  and  he  associated  with 
men  not  for  what  they  could  do  for  him,  but  for  what 
he  could  do  for  them.  Although  poor,  he  charged  noth- 
ing for  his  teachings.  He  seemed  to  despise  riches, 
since  riches  could  only  adorn  or  pamper  the  body.  Ho 
did  not  live  in  a  ceU  or  a  cave  or  a  tub,  but  among  the 
people,  as  an  apostle.  He  must  have  accepted  gifts, 
since  his  means  of  living  were  exceedingly  small,  even 
for  Athens. 

He  was  very  practical,  even  while  he  lived  above  the 
world,  absorbed  in  lofty  contemplations.  He  was  always 
talking  with  such  as  the  skin-dressers  and  leather-deal- 
ers, using  homely  language  for  his  illustrations,  and  ut- 
tering plain  truths.  Yet  he  was  equally  at  home  with 
poets  and  philosophers  and  statesmen.  He  did  not 
take  much  interest  in  that  knowledge  which  was  applied 
merely  to  rising  in  the  world.  Though  plain,  practi- 
cal, and  even  homely  in  his  conversation,  he  was  not 
utilitarian.  Science  had  no  charm  to  him,  since  it  was 
directed  to  utilitarian  ends  and  was  uncertain.  His 
sayings  had  such  a  lofty,  hidden  wisdom  that  very  few 
people  understood  him :  his  utterances  seemed  either 
paradoxical,  or  unintelligible,  or  sophistical.  "To  the 
mentally  proud  and  mentally  feeble  he  was  equally  a 
bore."  Most  people  probably  thought  him  a  nuisance, 
since  he  was  always  about  with  his  questions,  puzzling 
some,  confuting  others,  and  reproving  all,  —  careless  of 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  255 

love  or  hatred,  and  contemptuous  of  all  conventionali- 
ties. So  severely  dialectical  was  he  that  he  seemed  to 
be  a  hair-splitter.  The  very  Sophists,  whose  ignorance 
and  pretension  he  exposed,  looked  upon  him  as  a  quib- 
bler;  although  there  were  some — so  severely  trained 
was  the  Grecian  mind  —  who  saw  the  drift  of  his  ques- 
tions, and  admired  his  skill.  Probably  there  are  few 
educated  people  in  these  times  who  could  have  under- 
stood him  any  more  easily  than  a  modern  audience, 
even  of  scholars,  could  take  in  one  of  the  orations  of 
Demosthenes,  although  they  might  laugh  at  the  jokes 
of  the  sage,  and  be  impressed  with  the  invectives  of 
the  orator. 

And  yet  there  were  defects  in  Socrates.  He  was 
most  provokingly  sarcastic;  he  turned  everything  to 
ridicule;  he  remorselessly  punctured  every  gas-bag  he 
met;  he  heaped  contempt  on  every  snob;  he  threw 
stones  at  every  glass  house,  —  and  everybody  lived  in 
one.  He  was  not  quite  just  to  the  Sophists,  for  they 
did  not  pretend  to  teach  the  higher  life,  but  chiefly 
rhetoric,  which  is  useful  in  its  way.  And  if  they  loved 
applause  and  riches,  and  attached  themselves  to  those 
whom  they  could  utilize,  they  were  not  different  from 
most  fashionable  teachers  in  any  age.  And  then  Soc- 
rates was  not  very  delicate  in  his  tastes.  He  was  too 
much  carried  away  by  the  fascinations  of  Aspasia, 
when  he  knew  that  she  was  not  virtuous.  —  although 


256  SOCRATES. 


it  was  doubtless  her  remarkable  intellect  which  most 
attracted  him,  not  her  physical  beauty;  since  in  the 
"  Menexenus  "  (by  many  ascribed  to  Plato)  he  is  made 
to  recite  at  length  one  of  her  long  orations,  and  in 
the  "Symposium"  he  is  made  to  appear  absolutely 
indehcate  in  his  conduct  with  Alcibiades,  and  to 
make  what  would  be  abhorrent  to  us  a  matter  of 
irony,  although  there  was  the  severest  control  of  the 
passions. 

To  me  it  has  always  seemed  a  strange  thing  that 
such  an  ugly,  satirical,  provoking  man  could  have  won 
and  retained  the  love  of  Xanthippe,  especially  since  he 
was  so  careless  of  his  dress,  and  did  so  little  to  provide 
for  the  wants  of  the  household.  I  do  not  wonder  that 
she  scolded  him,  or  became  very  violent  in  her  temper ; 
since,  in  her  worst  tirades,  he  only  provokingly  laughed 
at  her.  A  modern  Christian  woman  of  society  would 
have  left  him.  But  perhaps  in  Pagan  Athens  she 
could  not  have  got  a  divorce.  It  is  only  in  these  en- 
lightened and  progressive  times  that  women  desert  their 
husbands  when  they  are  tantalizing,  or  when  they  do 
not  properly  support  the  family,  or  spend  their  time 
at  the  clubs  or  in  society, —  into  which  it  would  seem 
that  Socrates  was  received,  even  the  best,  barefooted 
and  dirty  as  he  was,  and  for  his  intellectual  gifts  alone. 
Think  of  such  a  man  being  the  oracle  of  a  modem 
salon,  either  in  Paris,  London,  or  New  York,  with  hia 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  257 


repulsive  appearance,  and  tantalizing  and  provoking 
irony.  But  in  artistic  Athens,  at  one  time,  he  was  all 
the  fashion.  Everybody  liked  to  hear  him  talk.  Every- 
body was  both  amused  and  instructed.  He  provoked 
no  envy,  since  he  affected  modesty  and  ignorance,  ap- 
parently asking  his  questions  for  information,  and  was 
so  meanly  clad,  and  lived  in  such  a  poor  way.  Though 
he  provoked  animosities,  he  had  many  friends.  If  his 
language  was  sarcastic,  his  affections  were  kind.  He 
was  always  surrounded  by  the  most  gifted  men  of  his 
time.  The  wealthy  Crito  constantly  attended  him ; 
Plato  and  Xenophon  were  enthusiastic  pupils ;  even 
Alcibiades  was  charmed  by  his  conversation;  Apollo- 
dorus  and  Antisthenes  rarely  quitted  his  side ;  Cebes 
and  Simonides  came  from  Thebes  to  hear  him ;  Isocrates 
and  Aristippus  followed  in  his  train ;  Euclid  of  Megara 
sought  his  society,  at  the  risk  of  his  life ;  the  tyrant 
Critias,  and  even  the  Sophist  Protagoras,  acknowledged 
his  marvellous  power. 

But  I  cannot  linger  longer  on  the  man,  with  his  gifts 
and  peculiarities.  More  important  things  demand  our 
attention.  I  propose  briefly  to  show  his  contributions 
to  philosophy  and  ethics. 

In  regard  to  the  first,  I  wUl  not  dwell  on  his  method, 
which  is  both  subtle  and  dialectical.  We  are  not 
Greeks,  Yet  it  was  his  method  which  revolutionized 
philosophy.     That  was  original.     He  saw  this, —  that 


258  SOCRATES. 


the  theories  of  his  day  were  mere  opinions ;  even  the 
lofty  speculations  of  the  Ionian  philosophers  were 
dreams,  and  the  teachings  of  the  Sophists  were  mere 
words.  He  despised  both  dreams  and  words.  Specu- 
lations ended  in  the  indefinite  and  insoluble;  words 
ended  in  rhetoric.  Neither  dreams  nor  words  revealed 
the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good, — which,  to  his 
mind,  were  the  only  realities,  the  only  sure  foundation 
for  a  philosophical  system. 

So  he  propounded  certain  questions,  which,  when 
answered,  produced  glaring  contradictions,  from  which 
disputants  shrank.  Their  conclusions  broke  down 
their  assumptions.  They  stood  convicted  of  igno- 
rance, to  which  all  his  artful  and  subtle  questions 
tended,  and  which  it  was  his  aim  to  prove.  He  showed 
that  they  did  not  know  what  they  affirmed.  He  proved 
that  their  definitions  were  wrong  or  incomplete,  since 
they  logically  led  to  contradictions ;  and  he  showed  that 
for  purposes  of  disputation  the  same  meaning  must 
always  attach  to  the  same  word,  since  in  ordinary  lan- 
guage terms  have  dififerent  meanings,  partly  true  and 
partly  false,  which  produce  confusion  in  argument. 
He  would  be  precise  and  definite,  and  use  the  utmost 
rigor  of  language,  without  which  inquirers  and  dis- 
putants would  not  understand  each  other.  Every  defi- 
nition should  include  the  whole  thing,  and  nothing 
else;   otherwise,  people  would  not  know  what  they 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  259 

were  talking  about,  and  would  be  forced  into  absurdi- 
ties. 

Thus  arose  the  celebrated  "definitions,"  —  tbe  first 
step  in  Greek  philosophy,  —  intending  to  show  what  is, 
and  what  is  not.  After  demonstrating  what  is  not, 
Socrates  advanced  to  the  demonstration  of  what  is,  and 
thus  laid  a  foundation  for  certain  knowledge :  thus  he 
arrived  at  clear  conceptions  of  justice,  friendship,  pa- 
triotism, courage,  and  other  certitudes,  on  which  truth 
is  based.  He  wanted  only  positive  truth,  —  something 
to  build  upon, — like  Bacon  and  all  great  inquirers.  Hav- 
ing reached  the  certain,  he  would  apply  it  to  all  the 
relations  of  life,  and  to  all  kinds  of  knowledge.  Unless 
knowledge  is  certain,  it  is  worthless, — there  is  no  foun- 
dation to  build  upon.  Uncertain  or  indefinite  knowl- 
edge is  no  knowledge  at  all ;  it  may  be  very  pretty,  or 
amusing,  or  ingenious,  but  no  more  valuable  for  phil- 
osophical research  than  poetry  or  dreams  or  specula- 
tions. 

How  far  the  "definitions"  of  Socrates  led  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  great  problems  of  philosophy,  in  the  hands 
of  such  dialecticians  as  Plato  and  Aristotle,  I  will  not 
attempt  to  enter  upon  here ;  but  this  I  think  I  am  war- 
ranted in  saying,  that  the  main  object  and  aim  of 
Socrates,  as  a  teacher  of  philosophy,  were  to  establish 
certain  elemental  truths,  concerning  which  there  could 
be  no  dispute,  and  then  to  reason  from  them,  —  since 


260  SOCRA  TES. 


they  were  not  mere  assumptions,  but  certitudes,  and 
certitudes  also  which  appealed  to  human  consciousness, 
and  therefore  could  not  be  overthrown.  If  I  were 
teaching  metaphysics,  it  would  be  necessary  for  me  to 
make  clear  this  method,  —  the  questions  and  defini- 
tions by  which  Socrates  is  thought  to  have  laid  the 
foundation  of  true  knowledge,  and  therefore  of  all 
healthful  advance  in  philosophy.  But  for  my  present 
purpose  I  do  not  care  so  much  what  his  method  was 
as  what  his  aim  was. 

The  aim  of  Socrates,  then,  being  to  find  out  and 
teach  what  is  definite  and  certain,  as  a  foundation  of 
knowledge,  —  having  cleared  away  the  rubbish  of  igno- 
rance, —  he  attached  very  little  importance  to  what  is 
called  physical  science.  And  no  wonder,  since  science 
in  his  day  was  very  imperfect.  There  were  not  facts 
enough  known  on  which  to  base  sound  inductions: 
better,  deductions  from  established  principles.  What 
is  deemed  most  certain  in  this  age  was  the  most  un- 
certain of  all  knowledge  in  his  day.  Scientific  knowl- 
edge, truly  speaking,  there  was  none.  It  was  all 
speculation.  Democritus  might  resolve  the  material 
universe  —  the  earth,  the  sun,  and  the  stars  —  into 
combinations  produced  by  the  motion  of  atoms.  But 
whence  the  original  atoms,  and  what  force  gave  to  them 
motion  ?  The  proudest  philosopher,  speculating  on  the 
origin  of  the  universe,  is  convicted  of  ignorance. 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  261 

Much  has  been  said  in  praise  of  the  Ionian  philos- 
ophers; and  justly,  so  far  as  their  genius  and  loftiness 
of  character  are  considered.  But  what  did  they  dis- 
cover ?  What  truths  did  they  arrive  at  to  serve  as 
foundation-stones  of  science?  They  were  among  the 
greatest  intellects  of  antiquity.  But  their  method  was 
a  wrong  one.  Their  philosophy  was  based  on  assump- 
tions and  speculations,  and  therefore  was  worthless, 
since  they  settled  nothing.  Their  science  was  based 
on  inductions  which  were  not  reliable,  because  of  a  lack 
of  facts.  They  drew  conclusions  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
universe  from  material  phenomena.  Thales,  seeing  that 
plants  are  sustained  by  dew  and  raia,  concluded  that 
water  was  the  first  beginning  of  things.  Anaximenes, 
seeing  that  animals  die  without  air,  thought  that  air 
was  the  great  primal  cause.  Then  Diogenes  of  Crete, 
making  a  fanciful  speculation,  imparted  to  air  an  intel- 
lectual energy.  Heraclitus  of  Ephesus  substituted  fire 
for  air.  None  of  the  illustrious  lonians  reached  any- 
thing higher,  than  that  the  first  cause  of  all  things  must 
be  intelligent.  The  speculations  of  succeeding  philoso- 
phers, living  in  a  more  material  age,  all  pertained  to  the 
world  of  matter  which  they  could  see  with  their  eyes. 
And  in  close  connection  with  speculations  about  matter, 
the  cause  of  which  they  could  not  settle,  was  indiffer- 
ence to  the  spiritual  nature  of  man,  which  they  could 
not  see,  and  all  the  wants  of  the  soul,  and  the  existence 


262  SOCRATES. 


of  the  future  state,  where  the  soul  alone  was  of  any  ac- 
count. So  atheism,  and  the  disbelief  of  the  existence 
of  the  soul  after  death,  characterized  that  materialism. 
Without  God  and  without  a  future,  there  was  no  stimu- 
lus to  virtue  and  no  foundation  for  anything.  They 
said,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die,"  — 
the  essence  and  spirit  of  all  paganism. 

Socrates,  seeing  how  unsatisfactory  were  all  physical 
inquiries,  and  what  evUs  materialism  introduced  into 
society,  making  the  body  everything  and  the  soul  noth- 
ing, turned  his  attention  to  the  world  within,  and  "  for 
physics  substituted  morals."  He  knew  the  uncertainty 
of  physical  speculation,  but  beUeved  in  the  certainty  of 
moral  truths.  He  knew  that  there  was  a  reality  in 
justice,  in  friendship,  in  courage.  Like  Job,  he  reposed 
on  consciousness.  He  turned  his  attention  to  what 
afterwards  gave  immortality  to  Descartes.  To  the 
scepticism  of  the  Sophists  he  opposed  self-evident 
truths.  He  proclaimed  the  sovereignty  of  virtue,  the 
universality  of  moral  obligation.  "Moral  certitude 
was  the  platform  from  which  he  would  survey  the  uni- 
verse." It  was  the  ladder  by  which  he  would  ascend 
to  the  loftiest  regions  of  knowledge  and  of  happiness. 
"  Though  he  was  negative  in  his  means,  he  was  positive 
in  his  ends."  He  was  the  first  who  had  glimpses  of  the 
true  mission  of  philosophy,  —  even  to  sit  in  judgment 
on  all  knowledge,  whether  it  pertains  to  art,  or  politics, 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  263 

or  science ;  eliminating  the  false  and  retaining  the  true. 
It  was  his  mission  to  separate  truth  from  error.  He 
taught  the  world  how  to  weigh  evidence.  He  would 
discard  any  doctrine  which,  logically  carried  out,  led  to 
absurdity.  Instead  of  turning  his  attention  to  outward 
phenomena,  he  dwelt  on  the  truths  which  either  God  or 
consciousness  reveals.  Instead  of  the  creation,  he  dwelt 
on  the  Creator.  It  was  not  the  body  he  cared  for  so 
much  as  the  soul.  Not  wealth,  not  power,  not  the  ap- 
petites were  the  true  source  of  pleasure,  but  the  peace 
and  harmony  of  the  soul.  The  inquiry  should  be,  not 
what  we  shall  eat,  but  how  shall  we  resist  temptation ; 
how  shall  we  keep  the  soul  pure ;  how  shall  we  arrive 
at  virtue ;  how  shall  we  best  serve  our  country ;  how 
shall  we  best  educate  our  children ;  how  shall  we  expel 
worldliness  and  deceit  and  lies ;  how  shaU  we  walk  with 
God  ?  —  for  there  is  a  God,  and  there  is  immortality  and 
eternal  justice:  these  are  the  great  certitudes  of  hu- 
man life,  and  it  is  only  by  these  that  the  soul  will 
expand  and  be  happy  forever. 

Thus  there  was  a  close  connection  between  his  philos- 
ophy and  his  ethics.  But  it  was  as  a  moral  teacher 
that  he  won  his  most  enduring  fame.  The  teacher  of 
wisdom  became  subordinate  to  the  man  who  lived  it. 
As  a  living  Christian  is  nobler  than  merely  an  acute 
theologian,  so  he  who  practises  virtue  is  greater  than 
the  one  who  preaches  it.     The  dissection  of  the  passions 


264  SOCRA  TES. 


is  not  so  difficult  as  the  regulation  of  the  passions.  The 
moral  force  of  the  soul  is  superior  to  the  utmost  grasp 
of  the  intellect.  The  "  Thoughts"  of  Pascal  are  all  the 
more  read  because  the  religious  life  of  Pascal  is  known  to 
have  been  lofty.  Augustiae  was  the  oracle  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  from  the  radiance  of  his  character  as  much 
as  from  the  brilliancy  and  originality  of  his  intellect. 
Bernard  swayed  society  more  by  his  sanctity  than  by 
his  learning.  The  useful  life  of  Socrates  was  devoted 
not  merely  to  establish  the  grounds  of  moral  obligation, 
in  opposition  to  the  false  and  worldly  teaching  of  his 
day,  but  to  the  practice  of  temperance,  disinterestedness, 
and  patriotism.  He  found  that  the  ideas  of  his  con- 
temporaries centred  in  the  pleasure  of  the  body:  he 
would  make  his  body  subservient  to  the  welfare  of  the 
soul.  No  writer  of  antiquity  says  so  much  of  the  soul 
as  Plato,  his  chosen  disciple,  and  no  other  one  placed 
so  much  value  on  pure  subjective  knowledge.  His 
longings  after  love  were  scarcely  exceeded  by  Augus- 
tine or  St.  Theresa,  —  not  for  a  divine  Spouse,  but 
for  the  harmony  of  the  soul.  With  longings  after 
love  were  united  longings  after  immortality,  when 
the  mind  would  revel  forever  in  the  contemplation  of 
eternal  ideas  and  the  solution  of  mysteries,  —  a  sort 
of  Dantean  heaven.  Virtue  became  the  foundation  of 
happiness,  and  almost  a  synonym  for  knowledge.  He 
discoursed  on  knowledge  in  its  connection  with  virtue, 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  265 

after  the  fashion  of  Solomon  in  his  Proverbs.  Happi- 
ness, virtue,  knowledge:  this  was  the  Socratic  trinity, 
the  three  indissolubly  connected  together,  and  forming 
the  life  of  the  soul,  —  the  only  precious  thing  a  man 
has,  since  it  is  immortal,  and  therefore  to  be  guarded 
beyond  all  bodily  and  mundane  interests.  But  human 
nature  is  frail.  The  soul  is  fettered  and  bewildered ; 
hence  the  need  of  some  outside  influence,  some  illumi- 
nation, to  guard,  or  to  restrain,  or  guide.  "  This  inspi- 
ration, he  was  persuaded,  was  imparted  to  him  from 
time  to  time,  as  he  had  need,  by  the  monitions  of  an 
internal  voice  which  he  called  8acfi6vLov,  or  daemon,  — 
not  a  personification,  like  an  angel  or  devil,  but  a  divine 
sign  or  supernatural  voice."  From  youth  he  was  ac- 
customed to  obey  this  prohibitory  voice,  and  to  speak 
of  it,  —  a  voice  "  which  forbade  him  to  enter  on  public 
life,"  or  to  take  any  thought  for  a  prepared  defence  on 
his  trial.  The  Fathers  of  the  Church  regarded  this 
daemon  as  a  devil,  probably  from  the  name ;  but  it  is 
not  far,  in  its  real  meaning,  from  the  "  divine  grace "  of 
St.  Augustine  and  of  all  men  famed  for  Christian  expe- 
rience, —  that  restraining  grace  which  keeps  good  men 
from  folly  or  sin. 

Socrates,  again,  divorced  happiness  from  pleasure, — 
identical  things,  with  most  pagans.  Happiness  is  the 
peace  and  harmony  of  the  soul ;  pleasure  comes  from 
animal  sensations,  or  the  gratification  of  worldly  and 


266  SOCRATES. 


ambitious  desires,  and  therefore  is  often  demoralizing. 
Happiness  is  an  elevated  joy,  —  a  beatitude,  existing 
■with  pain  and  disease,  when  the  soul  is  triumphant  over 
the  body ;  while  pleasure  is  transient,  and  comes  from 
what  is  perishable.  Hence  but  little  account  should  be 
made  of  pain  and  suffering,  or  even  of  death.  The  life 
is  more  than  meat,  and  virtue  is  its  own  reward.  There 
is  no  reward  of  virtue  in  mere  outward  and  worldly 
prosperity ;  and,  with  virtue,  there  is  no  evU  in  adver- 
sity. One  must  do  right  because  it  is  right,  not  because 
it  is  expedient :  he  must  do  right,  whatever  advantages 
may  appear  by  not  doing  it.  A  good  citizen  must  obey 
the  laws,  because  they  are  laws :  he  may  not  violate 
them  because  temporal  and  immediate  advantages  are 
promised.  A  wise  man,  and  therefore  a  good  man,  will 
be  temperate.  He  must  neither  eat  nor  drink  to  excess. 
But  temperance  is  not  abstinence.  Socrates  not  only 
enjoined  temperance  as  a  great  virtue,  but  he  practised 
it.  He  was  a  model  of  sobriety,  and  yet  he  drank  wine 
at -feasts,  —  at  those  glorious  symposia  where  he  dis- 
coursed with  his  friends  on  the  highest  themes.  While 
he  controlled  both  appetites  and  passions,  in  order  to 
promote  true  happiness,  —  that  is,  the  welfare  of  the 
Boul,  —  he  was  not  solicitous,  as  others  were,  for  outward 
prosperity,  which  could  not  extend  beyond  mortal  Ufa 
He  would  show,  by  teaching  and  example,  that  he  val- 
ued future  good  beyond  any  transient  joy.    Hence  he 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  267 


accepted  poverty  and  physical  discomfort  as  very  trifling 
evils.  He  did  not  lacerate  the  body,  like  Brahmans  and 
monks,  to  make  the  soul  independent  of  it.  He  was  a 
Greek,  and  a  practical  man, — anything  but  visionary,  — 
and  regarded  the  body  as  a  sacred  temple  of  the  soul,  to 
be  kept  beautiful ;  for  beauty  is  as  much  an  eternal  idea 
as  friendship  or  love.  Hence  he  threw  no  contempt  on 
art,  since  art  is  based  on  beauty.  He  approved  of  ath- 
letic exercises,  which  strengthened  and  beautified  the 
body ;  but  he  would  not  defile  the  body  or  weaken  it, 
either  by  lusts  or  austerities.  Passions  were  not  to  be 
exterminated  but  controlled ;  and  controlled  by  reason, 
the  light  within  us,  —  that  which  guides  to  true  knowl- 
edge, and  hence  to  virtue,  and  hence  to  happiness.  The 
law  of  temperance,  therefore,  is  self-control. 

Courage  was  another  of  his  certitudes,  —  that  which 
animated  the  soldier  on  the  battlefield  with  patriotic 
glow  and  lofty  self-sacrifice.  Life  is  subordiuate  to  pa- 
triotism. It  was  of  but  little  consequence  whether  a 
man  died  or  not,  in  the  discharge  of  duty.  To  do  right 
was  the  main  thing,  because  it  was  right.  "  Like  George 
Fox,  he  would  do  right  if  the  world  were  blotted  out" 

The  weak  point,  to  my  mind,  in  the  Socratic  philoso- 
phy, considered  in  its  ethical  bearings,  was  the  con- 
founding of  virtue  with  knowledge,  and  making  them 
identical  Socrates  could  probably  have  explained  this 
difficulty  away,  for  no  one  more  than  he  appreciated  the 

VOL.  1.  — 16 


268  SOCRATES. 


tyranny  of  passion  and  appetite,  which  thus  fettered 
the  will ;  according  to  St  Paul,  "  The  evil  that  I  would 
not,  that  I  do."  Men  often  commit  sin  when  the  con- 
sequences of  it  and  the  nature  of  it  press  upon  the 
mind.  The  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  does  not  always 
restrain  a  man  from  doing  what  he  knows  will  end  in 
grief  and  shame.  The  restraint  comes,  not  from  knowl- 
edge, but  from  divine  aid,  which  was  probably  what 
Socrates  meant  by  his  daemon,  —  a  warning  and  a  con- 
straining power. 

**  Est  Deus  in  nobis,  agitante  calescimus  illo." 

But  this  is  not  exactly  the  knowledge  which  Socrates 
meant,  or  Solomon.  Alcibiades  was  taught  to  see  the 
loveliness  of  virtue  and  to  admire  it ;  but  he  had  not 
the  divine  and  restraining  power,  which  Socrates  called 
an  "  inspiration,"  and  others  would  call  "grace."  Yet 
Socrates  himself,  with  passions  and  appetites  as  great  as 
Alcibiades,  restrained  them,  —  was  assisted  to  do  so  by 
that  divine  Power  which  he  recognized,  and  probably 
adored.  How  far  he  felt  his  personal  responsibility  to 
this  Power  I  do  not  know.  The  sense  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility to  God  is  one  of  the  highest  manifestations 
of  Christian  life,  and  implies  a  recognition  of  God  as 
a  personality,  as  a  moral  governor  whose  eye  is  every- 
where, and  whose  commands  are  absolute.  Many  have 
a  vague  idea  of  Providence  as  pervading  and  ruling  the 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  269 

universe,  without  a  sense  of  personal  responsibility  to 
Him;  in  other  words,  without  a  "fear"  of  Him,  such  as 
Moses  taught,  and  which  is  represented  by  David  as 
"the  beginning  of  wisdom," — the  fear  to  do  wrong,  not 
only  because  it  is  wrong,  but  also  because  it  is  displeas- 
ing to  Him  who  can  both  punish  and  reward.  I  do  not 
believe  that  Socrates  had  this  idea  of  God ;  but  I  do  be- 
lieve that  he  recognized  His  existence  and  providence. 
Most  people  m  Greece  and  Eome  had  religious  instincts, 
and  believed  in  supernatural  forces,  who  exercised  an 
influence  over  their  destiny,  —  although  they  called  them 
"gods,"  or  divinities,  and  not  the  "  God  Almighty  "  whom 
Moses  taught.  The  existence  of  temples,  the  offices  of 
priests,  and  the  consultation  of  oracles  and  soothsayers, 
all  poiut  to  this.  And  the  people  not  only  believed  in 
the  existence  of  these  supernatural  powers,  to  whom 
they  erected  temples  and  statues,  but  many  of  them  be- 
lieved in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments, — 
otherwise  the  names  of  Minos  and  Ehadamanthus  and 
other  judges  of  the  dead  are  unintelligible.  Paganism 
and  mythology  did  not  deny  the  existence  and  power 
of  gods,  —  yea,  the  immortal  gods ;  they  only  multiplied 
their  number,  representing  them  as  avenging  deities 
with  human  passions  and  frailties,  and  offering  to  them 
gross  and  superstitious  rites  of  worship.  They  had  im- 
perfect and  even  degrading  ideas  of  the  gods,  but  ac- 
knowledged their  existence  and  their  power.     Socrates 


270  SOCRATES. 


emancipated  himself  from  these  degrading  superstitions, 
and  had  a  loftier  idea  of  God  than  the  people,  or  he 
would  not  have  been  accused  of  impiety,  —  that  is,  a 
dissent  from  the  popular  belief;  although  there  is  one 
thing  which  I  cannot  understand  in  his  life,  and  can- 
not harmonize  with  his  general  teachings,  —  that  in  his 
last  hours  his  last  act  was  to  command  the  sacrifice 
of  a  cock  to  ^sculapius. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  his  precise  and  definite 
ideas  of  God  and  immortality,  it  is  clear  that  he  soared 
beyond  his  contemporaries  in  his  conceptions  of  Provi- 
dence and  of  duty.  He  was  a  reformer  and  a  mission- 
ary, preaching  a  higher  morality  and  revealing  loftier 
truths  than  any  other  person  that  we  know  of  in  pagan 
antiquity;  although  there  lived  in  India,  about  two 
hundred  years  before  his  day,  a  sage  whom  they  called 
Buddha,  whom  some  modern  scholars  think  approached 
nearer  to  Christ  than  did  Socrates  or  Marcus  Aurehus. 
Very  possibly.  Have  we  any  reason  to  adduce  that 
God  has  ever  been  without  his  witnesses  on  earth,  or 
ever  will  be  ?  Why  could  he  not  have  imparted  wis- 
dom both  to  Buddha  and  Socrates,  as  he  did  to  Abra- 
ham, Moses,  and  Paul  ?  I  look  upon  Socrates  as  one  of 
the  witnesses  and  agents  of  Almighty  power  on  this 
earth  to  proclaim  exalted  truth  and  turn  people  from 
wickedness.  He  himself  —  not  indistinctly  —  claimed 
this  mission. 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  271 

TMnk  what  a  man  lie  was :  truly  was  he  a  "  moral 
phenomenon."  You  see  a  man  of  strong  animal  pro- 
pensities, but  with  a  lofty  soul,  appearing  in  a  wicked 
and  materialistic  —  and  possibly  atheistic  —  age,  over- 
turning all  previous  systems  of  philosophy,  and  incul- 
cating  a  new  and  higher  law  of  morals.  You  see  him 
spending  his  whole  life,  —  and  a  long  life,  —  in  disin- 
terested teachings  and  labors;  teaching  without  pay, 
attaching  himself  to  youth,  working  in  poverty  and 
discomfort,  indifferent  to  wealth  and  honor,  and  even 
power,  inculcating  incessantly  the  worth  and  dignity  of 
the  soul,  and  its  amazing  and  incalculable  superiority 
to  all  the  pleasures  of  the  body  and  all  the  rewards  of 
a  worldly  life.  Who  gave  to  him  this  wisdom  and  this 
almost  superhuman  virtue  ?  Who  gave  to  him  this 
insight  into  the  fundamental  principles  of  morality? 
Who,  in  this  respect,  made  him  a  greater  light  and 
a  clearer  expounder  than  the  Christian  Paley?  Who 
made  him,  in  all  spiritual  discernment,  a  wiser  man  than 
the  gifted  John  Stuart  Mill,  who  seems  to  have  been 
a  candid  searcher  after  truth  ?  In  the  wisdom  of  Soc- 
rates you  see  some  higher  force  than  intellectual  hardi- 
hood or  intellectual  clearness.  How  much  this  pagan 
did  to  emancipate  and  elevate  the  soul!  How  much 
he  did  to  present  the  vanities  and  pursuits  of  worldly 
men  in  their  true  light !  What  a  rebuke  were  his  life 
and  doctrines  to  the  Epicureanism  which  was  pervad- 


272  SOCRATES. 


ing  all  classes  of  society,  and  preparing  the  way  for 
mini  Who  cannot  see  in  him  a  forerunner  of  that 
greater  Teacher  who  was  the  friend  of  publicans  and 
sinners ;  who  rejected  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and 
the  speculations  of  the  Sadducees;  who  scorned  the 
riches  and  glories  of  the  world;  who  rebuked  everything 
pretentious  and  arrogant;  who  enjoined  humility  and 
self-abnegation ;  who  exposed  the  ignorance  and  sophis- 
tries of  ordinary  teachers ;  and  who  propounded  to  his 
disciples  no  such  "miserable  interrogatory"  as  "Who 
shall  show  us  any  good?"  but  a  higher  question  for 
their  solution  and  that  of  all  pleasure-seeking  and 
money-hunting  people  to  the  end  of  time,  — "  What 
shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul?" 

It  very  rarely  happens  that  a  great  benefactor  es- 
capes persecution,  especially  if  he  is  persistent  in  de- 
nouncing false  opinions  wliich  are  popular,  or  prevailing 
follies  and  sius.  As  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  who  had 
been  so  severely  and  openly  exposed  in  all  their  hypoc- 
risies by  our  Lord,  took  the  lead  in  causing  his  cruci- 
fixion, so  the  Sophists  and  tyrants  of  Athens  headed 
the  fanatical  persecution  of  Socrates  because  he  ex- 
posed their  shallowness  and  worldliness,  and  stung 
them  to  the  quick  by  his  sarcasms  and  ridicule.  His 
elevated  morality  and  lofty  spiritual  life  do  not  alone 
account  for  the  persecution.  If  he  had  let  persons 
alone,  and  had  not  ridiculed  their  opinions  and  pre- 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  273 


tensions,  they  would  probably  have  let  him  alone. 
Galileo  aroused  the  wrath  of  the  Inquisition  not  for 
his  scientific  discoveries,  but  because  he  ridiculed  the 
Dominican  and  Jesuit  guardians  of  the  philosophy  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  because  he  seemed  to  undermine 
the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  Church: 
his  boldness,  his  sarcasms,  and  his  mocking  spirit 
were  more  offensive  than  his  doctrines.  The  Church 
did  not  persecute  Kepler  or  Pascal.  The  Athenians 
may  have  condemned  Xenophanes  and  Anaxagoras, 
yet  not  the  other  Ionian  philosophers,  nor  the  lofty 
speculations  of  Plato;  but  they  murdered  Socrates 
because  they  hated  him.  It  was  not  pleasant  to  the 
gay  leaders  of  Athenian  society  to  hear  the  utter  vanity 
of  their  worldly  lives  painted  with  such  unsparing 
severity,  nor  was  it  pleasant  to  the  Sophists  and  rheto- 
ricians to  see  their  idols  overthrown,  and  they  them- 
selves exposed  as  false  teachers  and  shallow  pretenders. 
No  one  likes  to  see  himself  held  up  to  scorn  and 
mockery ;  nobody  is  willing  to  be  shown  up  as 
ignorant  and  conceited.  The  people  of  Athens  did 
not  like  to  see  their  gods  ridiculed,  for  the  logical 
sequence  of  the  teachings  of  Socrates  was  to  under- 
mine the  popular  religion.  It  was  very  offensive  to 
rich  and  worldly  people  to  be  told  that  their  riches 
and  pleasures  were  transient  and  worthless.  It  was  im- 
possible that  those  rhetoricians  who  gloried  in  words, 


274  SOCRATES. 


those  Sophists  who  covered  up  the  truth,  those  pedants 
who  prided  themselves  on  their  technicalities,  those 
politicians  who  lived  by  corruption,  those  worldly  fa- 
thers who  thought  only  of  pushing  the  fortunes  of 
their  children,  should  not  see  in  Socrates  their  uncom- 
promising foe ;  and  when  he  added  mockery  and  ridi- 
cule to  contempt,  and  piqued  their  vanity,  and  offended 
their  pride,  they  bitterly  hated  him  and  wished  him 
out  of  the  way.  My  wonder  is  that  he  should  have 
been  tolerated  until  he  was  seventy  years  of  age.  Men 
less  offensive  than  he  have  been  burned  alive,  and 
stoned  to  death,  and  tortured  on  the  rack,  and  de- 
voured by  lions  in  the  amphitheatre.  It  is  the  fate 
of  prophets  to  be  exiled,  or  slandered,  or  jeered  at,  or 
stigmatized,  or  banished  from  society,  —  to  be  subjected 
to  some  sort  of  persecution;  but  when  prophets  de- 
nounce woes,  and  utter  invectives,  and  provoke  by 
stinging  sarcasms,  they  have  generally  been  killed. 
No  matter  how  enlightened  society  is,  or  tolerant  the 
age,  he  who  utters  offensive  truths  will  be  disliked,  and 
in  some  way  punished. 

So  Socrates  must  meet  the  fate  of  all  benefactors  who 
make  themselves  disliked  and  hated.  First  the  great 
comic  poet  Aristophanes,  in  his  comedy  called  the 
"  Clouds,"  held  him  up  to  ridicule  and  reproach,  and  thus 
prepared  the  way  for  his  arraignment  and  trial.  He  is 
made  to  utter  a  thousand  impieties  and  impertinences. 


From  the  bust  in  the  National  Museum,  Naphi 
SOCEATES 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  275 

He  is  made  to  talk  like  a  man  of  the  greatest  vanity  and 
conceit,  and  to  throw  contempt  and  scorn  on  everybody 
else.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  poet  entered  into  any 
formal  conspiracy  against  him,  but  found  him  a  good 
subject  of  raillery  and  mockery,  since  Socrates  was  then 
very  impopular,  aside  from  his  moral  teachings,  foj 
being  declared  by  the  oracle  of  Delphi  the  wisest  man 
in  the  world,  and  for  having  been  intimate  with  the 
two  men  whom  the  Athenians  above  all  men  justly 
execrated,  —  Critias,  the  chief  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants 
whom  Lysander  had  imposed,  or  at  least  consented  to, 
after  the  Peloponnesian  war;  and  Alcibiades,  whose 
evil  counsels  had  led  to  an  unfortunate  expedition, 
and  who  in  addition  had  proved  himself  a  traitor  to 
his  country. 

Public  opinion  being  now  against  him,  on  various 
grounds  he  is  brought  to  trial  before  the  Dikastery,  — 
a  board  of  some  five  hundred  judges,  leading  citizens 
of  Athens.  One  of  his  chief  accusers  was  Anytus, 
—  a  rich  tradesman,  of  very  narrow  mind,  personally 
hostile  to  Socrates  because  of  the  influence  the  philoso- 
pher had  exerted  over  his  son,  yet  who  then  had  con- 
siderable influence  from  the  active  part  he  had  taken 
in  the  expulsion  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants.  The  more 
formidable  accuser  was  Meletus,  —  a  poet  and  a  rheto- 
rician, who  had  been  irritated  by  Socrates'  terrible 
cross-examinations.      The    principal    charges    against 


276  SOCRATES. 


him  were,  that  he  did  not  admit  the  gods  acknowl- 
edged by  the  republic,  and  that  he  corrupted  the 
youth  of  Athens. 

In  regard  to  the  first  charge,  it  could  not  be  techni- 
cally proved  that  he  had  assailed  the  gods,  for  he  was 
exact  in  his  legal  worship;  but  really  and  virtually 
there  was  some  foundation  for  the  accusation,  since 
Socrates  was  a  religious  innovator  if  ever  there  was  one. 
His  lofty  realism  was  subversive  of  popular  superstitions, 
when  logically  carried  out  As  to  the  second  charge, 
of  corrupting  youth,  this  was  utterly  groundless ;  for  he 
had  uniformly  enjoined  courage,  and  temperance,  and 
obedience  to  the  laws,  and  patriotism,  and  the  control 
of  the  passions,  and  all  the  higher  sentiments  of  the 
souL  But  the  tendency  of  his  teachings  was  to  create 
in  young  men  contempt  for  all  institutions  based  on 
falsehood  or  superstition  or  tyranny,  and  he  openly  dis- 
approved some  of  the  existing  laws,  —  such  as  choosing 
magistrates  by  lot,  —  and  freely  expressed  his  opinions. 
In  a  narrow  and  technical  sense  there  was  some  reason 
for  this  charge  ;  for  if  a  young  man  came  to  combat  his 
father's  business  or  habits  of  life  or  general  opinions, 
in  consequence  of  his  own  superior  enlightenment,  it 
might  be  made  out  that  he  had  not  sufficient  respect 
for  his  father,  and  thus  was  failing  in  the  virtues  of 
reverence  and  filial  obedience. 

Considering  the  genius  and  innocence  of  the  accused. 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  Ill 

he  did  not  make  an  able  defence ;  lie  might  have  done 
better.  It  appeared  as  if  he  did  not  wish  to  be 
acquitted.  He  took  no  thought  of  what  he  should 
say ;  he  made  no  preparation  for  so  great  an  occasion. 
He  made  no  appeal  to  the  passions  and  feelings  of  his 
judges.  He  refused  the  assistance  of  Lysias,  the  greatest 
orator  of  the  day.  He  brought  neither  his  wife  nor  chil- 
dren to  incline  the  judges  in  his  favor  by  their  sighs  and 
tears.  His  discourse  was  manly,  bold,  noble,  dignified, 
but  without  passion  and  without  art.  His  unpre- 
meditated replies  seemed  to  scorn  an  elaborate  defence. 
He  even  seemed  to  rebuke  his  judges,  rather  than  to 
conciliate  them.  On  the  culprit's  bench  he  assumed 
the  manners  of  a  teacher.  He  might  easily  have  saved 
himself,  for  there  was  but  a  small  majority  (only  five  or 
six  at  the  first  vote)  for  his  condemnation.  And  then 
he  irritated  his  judges  unnecessarily.  According  to  the 
laws  he  had  the  privilege  of  proposing  a  substitution 
for  his  punishment,  which  would  have  been  accepted, 
—  exile  for  instance ;  but,  with  a  provoking  and  yet 
amusing  irony,  he  asked  to  be  supported  at  the  public 
expense  in  the  Prj^taneum:  that  is,  he  asked  for  the 
highest  honor  of  the  republic.  For  a  condemned 
criminal  to  ask  this  was  audacity  and  defiance. 

We  cannot  otherwise  suppose  than  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  be  acquitted.  He  wished  to  dia  The  time 
had  come ;  he  had  fulfilled  his  mission ;  he  was  old 


278  SOCRATES. 


and  poor;  his  condemnation  would  bring  his  truths 
before  the  world  in  a  more  impressive  form.  He  knew 
the  moral  greatness  of  a  martyr's  death.  He  reposed 
in  the  calm  consciousness  of  having  rendered  great 
services,  of  having  made  important  revelations.  He 
never  had  an  ignoble  love  of  life ;  death  had  no  terrors 
to  him  at  any  time.  So  he  was  perfectly  resigned  to 
his  fate.  Most  willingly  he  accepted  the  penalty  of 
plain  speaking,  and  presented  no  serious  remonstrances 
and  no  indignant  denials.  Had  he  pleaded  eloquently 
for  his  life,  he  would  not  have  fulfilled  his  mission. 
He  acted  with  amazing  foresight;  he  took  the  only 
course  which  would  secure  a  lasting  influence.  He 
knew  that  his  death  would  evoke  a  new  spirit  of  in- 
quiry, which  would  spread  over  the  civilized  world.  It 
was  a  public  disappointment  that  he  did  not  defend 
himself  with  more  earnestness.  But  he  was  not  seek- 
ing applause  for  his  genius,  —  simply  the  final  triumph 
of  his  cause,  best  secured  by  martyrdom. 

So  he  received  his  sentence  with  evident  satisfaction ; 
and  in  the  interval  between  it  and  his  execution  he 
spent  his  time  in  cheerful  but  lofty  conversations  with 
his  disciples.  He  unhesitatingly  refused  to  escape 
from  his  prison  when  the  means  would  have  been 
provided.  His  last  hours  were  of  immortal  beauty. 
His  friends  were  dissolved  in  tears,  but  he  was  calm, 
composed,  triumphant ;  and  when  he  lay  down  to  die 


GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  27^ 

he  prayed  that  his  migration  to  the  unknown  land 
might  be  propitious.  He  died  without  pain,  as  the 
hemlock  produced  only  torpor. 

His  death,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  created  a  pro- 
found impression.  It  was  one  of  the  most  memorable 
events  of  the  pagan  world,  whose  greatest  light  was 
extinguished,  —  no,  not  extinguished,  since  it  has  been 
shining  ever  since  in  the  "Memorabilia"  of  Xenophon 
and  the  "Dialogues"  of  Plato.  Too  late  the  Athe- 
nians repented  of  their  injustice  and  cruelty.  They 
erected  to  his  memory  a  brazen  statue,  executed  by 
Lysippus.  His  character  and  his  ideas  are  alike  im- 
mortal. The  schools  of  Athens  properly  date  from 
his  death,  about  the  year  400  b.  c,  and  these  schools 
redeemed  the  shame  of  her  loss  of  pohtical  power. 
The  Socratic  philosophy,  as  expounded  by  Plato,  sur- 
vived the  wrecks  of  material  greatness.  It  entered 
even  into  the  Christian  schools,  especially  at  Alexan- 
dria; it  has  ever  assisted  and  animated  the  earnest 
searchers  after  the  certitudes  of  life ;  it  has  permeated 
the  intellectual  world,  and  found  admirers  and  ex- 
pounders in  aU  the  universities  of  Europe  and  America. 
"No  man  has  ever  been  found,"  says  Grote,  "strong 
enough  to  bend  the  bow  of  Socrates,  the  father  of  phi- 
losophy, the  most  original  thmker  of  antiquity."  His 
teachings  gave  an  immense  impulse  to  civilization,  but 
they  could  not  reform  or  save  the  world;  it  was  too 


280  SOCRATES. 


deeply  sunk  in  the  infamies  and  immoralities  of  an 
Epicurean  life.  Nor  was  his  philosophy  ever  popular 
in  any  age  of  our  world.  It  never  will  be  popular 
until  the  light  which  men  hate  shall  expel  the  dark- 
ness which  they  love.  But  it  has  been  the  comfort 
and  the  joy  of  an  esoteric  few,  —  the  witnesses  of  truth 
whom  God  chooses,  to  keep  alive  the  virtues  and  the 
ideas  which  shall  ultimately  triumph  over  all  the  forces 
of  eviL 


AUTHORITIES. 

Thb  direct  sources  are  chiefly  Plato  (Jowett's  translation)  and  Xeno< 
pbon.  Indirect  sources :  chiefly  Aristotle,  Metaphysics ;  Diogenes  Laer- 
tius's  Lives  of  Philosophers ;  Grote's  History  of  Greece ;  Brandis's  Plato, 
in  Smith's  Dictionary ;  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson's  Representative  Men ; 
Cicero  on  Immortality;  J.  Martineau,  Essay  on  Plato;  Thirlwall's  His- 
tory of  Greece.  See  also  the  late  work  of  Curtius ;  Ritter's  History  of 
Philosophy;  F.  D.  Maurice's  History  of  Moral  Philosophy;  G.  H.  Lewes' 
Biographical  History  of  Philosophy  ;  Hampden's  Fathers  of  Greek  Philoso- 
phy ;  J,  S.  Blackie's  Wise  Men  of  Greece ;  Starr  King's  Lecture  on  Socrates ; 
Smith's  Biographical  Dictionary ;  Ueherweg's  History  of  Philosophy ; 
W.  A.  Butler's  History  of  Ancient  Philosophy;  Grote's  Aristotle. 


PHIDIAS 


500-430  B.  C. 


GREEK  ART. 


PHIDIAS. 


GREEK  ART. 


T  SUPPOSE  there  is  no  subject,  at  this  time,  which 
■*•  interests  cultivated  people  in  favored  circumstances 
more  than  Art.  They  travel  in  Europe,  they  visit  gal- 
leries, they  survey  cathedrals,  they  buy  pictures,  they 
collect  old  china,  they  learn  to  draw  and  paint,  they  go 
into  ecstasies  over  statues  and  bronzes,  they  fill  their 
houses  with  bric-a-brac,  they  assume  a  cynical  criticism, 
or  gossip  pedantically,  whether  they  know  what  they 
are  talking  about  or  not.  In  short,  the  contemplation 
of  Art  is  a  fashion,  concerning  which  it  is  not  well  to 
be  ignorant,  and  about  which  there  is  an  amazing 
amount  of  cant,  pretension,  and  borrowed  opinions. 
Artists  themselves  differ  in  their  judgments,  and  many 
who  patronize  them  have  no  severity  of  discrimination. 
We  see  bad  pictures  on  the  walls  of  private  palaces, 
as  well  as  in  public  galleries,  for  which  fabulous  prices 
are  paid  because  they  are,  or  are  supposed  to  be,  the 
creation  of  great  masters,  or  because  they  are  rare  hke 

VOL.  I.  — 17 


284  PHIDIAS 

old  books  in  an  antiquarian  library,  or  because  fashion 
has  given  them  a  fictitious  value,  even  when  these 
pictures  fail  to  create  pleasure  or  emotion  in  those  who 
view  them.  And  yet  there  is  great  enjoyment,  to  some 
people,  in  the  contemplation  of  a  beautiful  building  or 
statue  or  painting,  —  as  of  a  beautiful  landscape  or  of  a 
glorious  sky.  The  ideas  of  beauty,  of  grace,  of  grandeur, 
wliich  are  eternal,  are  suggested  to  the  mind  and  soul ; 
and  these  cultivate  and  refine  in  proportion  as  the  mind 
and  soul  are  enlarged,  especially  among  the  rich,  the 
learned,  and  the  favored  classes.  So,  in  high  civiliza- 
tions, especially  material.  Art  is  not  only  a  fashion 
but  a  great  enjoyment,  a  lofty  study,  and  a  theme  of 
general  criticism  and  constant  conversation. 

It  is  my  object,  of  course,  to  present  the  subject  his- 
torically, rather  than  critically.  My  criticisms  would 
be  mere  opinions,  worth  no  more  than  those  of  thou- 
sands of  other  people.  As  a  public  teacher  to  those 
who  may  derive  some  instruction  from  my  labors  and 
studies,  I  presume  to  offer  only  reflections  on  Art  as  it 
existed  among  the  Greeks,  and  to  show  its  developments 
in  an  historical  point  of  view. 

The  reader  may  be  surprised  that  I  should  venture 
to  present  Phidias  as  one  of  the  benefactors  of  the 
world,  when  so  little  is  known  about  him,  or  can  be 
known  about  him.  So  far  as  the  man  is  concerned, 
I  might  as  well  lecture  on  Melchizedek,  or  Pharaoh, 


GREEK  ART.  285 

or  one  of  the  dukes  of  Edom.  There  are  no  materials 
to  construct  a  personal  history  which  would  be  inter- 
esting, such  as  abound  in  reference  to  Michael  Angelo 
or  Raphael.  Thus  he  must  be  made  the  mere  text 
of  a  great  subject.  The  development  of  Art  is  an 
important  part  of  the  history  of  civilization.  The 
influence  of  Art  on  human  culture  and  happiness  is 
prodigious.  Ancient  Grecian  art  marks  one  of  the 
stepping-stones  of  the  race.  Any  man  who  largely 
contributed  to  its  development  was  a  world-bene- 
factor. 

Now,  history  says  this  much  of  Phidias:  that  he 
lived  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  —  in  the  culminating 
period  of  Grecian  glory,  —  and  ornamented  the  Parthe- 
non with  his  unrivalled  statues ;  which  Parthenon  was 
to  Athens  what  Solomon's  Temple  was  to  Jerusalem, — 
a  wonder,  a  pride,  and  a  glory.  His  great  contribution 
to  that  matchless  edifice  was  the  statue  of  Minerva, 
made  of  gold  and  ivory,  forty  feet  in  height,  the  gold 
of  which  alone  was  worth  forty-four  talents,  —  about 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  —  an  immense  sum  when  gold 
was  probably  worth  more  than  twenty  times  its  pres- 
ent value.  All  antiquity  was  unanimous  in  its  praise 
of  this  statue,  and  the  exactness  and  finish  of  its  de- 
tails were  as  remarkable  as  the  grandeur  and  majesty 
of  its  proportions.  Another  of  the  famous  works  of 
Phidias  was  the  bronze  statue  of  Minerva,  which  was 


286  PHIDIAS. 

the  glory  of  tlie  Acropolis.  This  was  sixty  feet  in 
height.  But  even  this  yielded  to  the  colossal  statue 
of  Zeus  or  Jupiter  in  his  great  temple  at  Olympia, 
representing  the  figure  in  a  sitting  posture,  forty  feet 
high,  on  a  throne  made  of  gold,  ebony,  ivory,  and  pre- 
cious stones.  In  this  statue  the  immortal  artist  sought 
to  represent  power  in  repose,  as  Michael  Angelo  did 
in  his  statue  of  Moses.  So  famous  was  this  majestic 
statue,  that  it  was  considered  a  calamity  to  die  with- 
out seeing  it;  and  it  served  as  a  model  for  aU  subse- 
quent representations  of  majesty  and  repose  among  the 
ancients.  This  statue,  removed  to  Constantinople  by 
Theodosius  the  Great,  remained  undestroyed  until  the 
year  475  a.  d. 

Phidias  also  executed  various  other  works,  —  all 
famous  in  his  day,  —  which  have,  however,  perished; 
but  many  executed  under  his  superintendence  still 
remain,  and  are  universally  admired  for  their  grace 
and  majesty  of  form.  The  great  master  himself  was 
probably  vastly  superior  to  any  of  his  disciples,  and 
impressed  his  genius  on  the  age,  having,  so  far  as  we 
know,  no  rival  among  his  contemporaries,  as  he  has 
had  no  successor  among  the  modems  of  equal  origi- 
nality and  power,  unless  it  be  Michael  Angelo.  His  dis- 
tinguished excellence  was  simplicity  and  grandeur;  and 
he  was  to  sculpture  what  ^schylus  was  to  tragic  poe- 
tiy,  —  sublime  and  grand,  representing  ideal  excellence. 


GREEK  ART.  287 


Though  his  works  have  perished,  the  ideas  he  repre- 
sented still  live.  His  fame  is  immortal,  though  we 
know  so  little  about  him.  It  is  based  on  the  admira- 
tion of  antiquity,  on  the  universal  praise  which  his 
creations  extorted  even  from  the  severest  critics  in  an 
age  of  Art,  when  the  best  energies  of  an  ingenious 
people  were  directed  to  it  with  the  absorbing  devotion 
now  given  to  mechanical  inventions  and  those  pur- 
suits which  make  men  rich  and  comfortable.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  know  the  private  life  of  this  great 
artist,  his  ardent  loves  and  fierce  resentments,  his  social 
habits,  his  public  honors  and  triumphs,  —  but  this 
is  mere  speculation.  We  may  presume  that  he  was 
rich,  flattered,  and  admired, — the  companion  of  great 
statesmen,  rulers,  and  generals ;  not  a  persecuted  man 
like  Dante,  but  honored  like  Raphael;  one  of  the 
fortunate  of  earth,  since  he  was  a  master  of  what  was 
most  valued  in  his  day. 

But  it  is  the  work  which  he  represents — and  still 
more  comprehensively  Art  itself  in  the  ancient  world 
—  to  which  I  would  call  your  attention,  especially 
the  expression  of  Art  in  buildings,  in  statues,  and  in 
pictures. 

"Art"  is  itself  a  very  great  word,  and  means  many 
things ;  it  is  applied  to  style  in  writing,  to  musical 
compositions,  and  even  to  effective  eloquence,  as  well 
as    to    architecture,    sculpture,    and    painting.      We 


288  PHIDIAS. 

speak  of  music  as  artistic,  —  and  not  foolishly;  of  an 
artistic  poet,  or  an  artistic  writer  like  Voltaire  or 
Macaulay;  of  an  artistic  preacher, — by  which  we  mean 
that  each  and  all  move  the  sensibilities  and  souls  and 
minds  of  men  by  adherence  to  certain  harmonies 
which  accord  with  fixed  ideas  of  grace,  beauty,  and 
dignity.  Eternal  ideas  which  the  mind  conceives  are 
the  foundation  of  Art,  as  they  are  of  Philosophy.  Art 
claims  to  be  creative,  and  is  in  a  certain  sense  inspired, 
like  the  genius  of  a  poet.  However  material  the  cre- 
ation, the  spirit  which  gives  beauty  to  it  is  of  the  mind 
and  soul.  Imagination  is  tasked  to  its  utmost  stretch 
to  portray  sentiments  and  passions  in  the  way  that 
makes  the  deepest  impression.  The  marble  bust  be- 
comes animated,  and  even  the  temple  consecrated  to 
the  deity  becomes  religious,  in  proportion  as  these  sug- 
gest the  ideas  and  sentiments  which  kindle  the  soul 
to  admiration  and  awe.  These  feelings  belong  to 
every  one  by  nature,  and  are  most  powerful  when 
most  felicitously  called  out  by  the  magic  of  the  mas- 
ter, who  requires  time  and  labor  to  perfect  his  skiH 
Art  is  therefore  popular,  and  appeals  to  every  one, 
but  to  those  most  who  live  in  the  great  ideas  on  which 
it  is  based.  The  peasant  stands  awe-struck  before  the 
majestic  magnitude  of  a  cathedral ;  the  man  of  culture 
is  roused  to  enthusiasm  by  the  contemplation  of  its 
grand  proportions,  or  graceful  outlines,  or  bewitching 


GREEK  ART.  289 


details,  because  he  sees  in  them  the  realization  of  his 
ideas  of  beauty,  grace,  and  majesty,  which  shine  for- 
ever in  unutterable  glory, — indestructible  ideas  which 
survive  all  thrones  and  empires,  and  even  civilizations. 
They  are  as  imperishable  as  stars  and  suns  and  rain- 
bows and  landscapes,  since  these  unfold  new  beauties 
as  the  mind  and  soul  rest  upon  them.  Whenever, 
then,  man  creates  an  image  or  a  picture  which  reveals 
these  eternal  but  indescribable  beauties,  and  calls 
forth  wonder  or  enthusiasm,  and  excites  refined  plea- 
sures, he  is  an  artist.  He  impresses,  to  a  greater 
or  less  degree,  every  order  and  class  of  men.  He  be- 
comes a  benefactor,  since  he  stimulates  exalted  senti- 
ments, which,  after  all,  are  the  real  glory  and  pride 
of  life,  and  the  cause  of  all  happiness  and  virtue, — 
in  cottage  or  in  palace,  amid  hard  toils  as  well  as  in 
luxurious  leisure.  He  is  a  self-sustained  man,  since 
he  revels  in  ideas  rather  than  in  praises  and  honors. 
Like  the  man  of  virtue,  he  finds  in  the  adoration  of 
the  deity  he  worships  his  highest  reward.  Michael 
Angelo  worked  preoccupied  and  rapt,  without  even 
the  stimulus  of  praise,  to  advanced  old  age,  even  as 
Dante  lived  in  the  visions  to  which  his  imagination 
gave  form  and  reality.  Art  is  therefore  not  only  self- 
sustained,  but  lofty  and  unselfish.  It  is  indeed  the 
exalted  soul  going  forth  triumphant  over  external  dif- 
ficulties, jubilant  and  melodious  even  in  poverty  and 


290  PHIDIAS. 

neglect,  rising  above  all  the  evils  of  life,  revelling  in 
the  glories  which  are  impenetrable,  and  living  —  for 
the  time  —  in  the  realm  of  deities  and  angels.  The 
accidents  of  earth  are  no  more  to  the  true  artist  striv- 
ing to  reach  and  impersonate  his  ideal  of  beauty  and 
grace,  than  furniture  and  tapestries  are  to  a  true  woman 
seeking  the  beatitudes  of  love.  And  it  is  only  when 
there  is  this  soul  longing  to  reach  the  excellence  con- 
ceived, for  itself  alone,  that  great  works  have  been 
produced.  When  Art  has  been  prostituted  to  pander 
to  perverted  tastes,  or  has  been  stimulated  by  thirst 
for  gain,  then  inferior  works  only  have  been  created. 
Era  Angelico  lived  secluded  in  a  convent  when  he 
painted  his  exquisite  Madonnas.  It  was  the  exhaustion 
of  the  nervous  energies  consequent  on  superhuman 
toils,  rather  than  the  luxuries  and  pleasures  which  his 
position  and  means  afforded,  which  killed  Kaphael  at 
thirty-seven. 

The  artists  of  Greece  did  not  live  for  utilities  any 
more  than  did  the  Ionian  philosophers,  but  in  those  glori- 
ous thoughts  and  creations  which  were  their  chosen  joy. 
Whatever  can  be  reached  by  the  unaided  powers  of 
man  was  attained  by  them.  They  represented  all  that 
the  mind  can  conceive  of  the  beauty  of  the  human 
form,  and  the  harmony  of  architectural  proportions. 
In  the  realm  of  beauty  and  grace  modem  civilization 
has  no  prouder  triumphs  than  those  achieved  by  the 


GREEK  ART.  291 


artists  of  Pagan  antiquity.  Grecian  artists  have  been 
the  teachers  of  all  nations  and  all  ages  in  architecture, 
sculpture,  and  painting.  How  far  they  were  them- 
selves original  we  cannot  teU.  We  do  not  know  how 
much  they  were  indebted  to  Egyptians,  Phoenicians,  and 
Assyrians,  but  in  real  excellence  they  have  never  been 
surpassed.  In  some  respects,  their  works  stiU  remain 
objects  of  hopeless  imitation :  in  the  realization  of 
ideas  of  beauty  and  form,  they  reached  absolute  per- 
fection. Hence  we  have  a  right  to  infer  that  Art  can 
flourish  under  Pagan  as  well  as  Christian  influences. 
It  was  a  comparatively  Pagan  age  in  Italy  when  the 
great  artists  arose  who  succeeded  Da  Vinci,  especially 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Medici  and  the  Medicean 
popes.  Christianity  has  only  modified  Art  by  purifying 
it  from  sensual  attractions.  Christianity  added  very 
little  to  Art,  until  cathedrals  arose  in  their  grand  pro- 
portions and  infinite  details,  and  until  artists  sought  to 
portray  in  the  faces  of  their  Saints  and  Madonnas  the 
seraphic  sentiments  of  Christian  love  and  angelic  purity. 
Art  even  declined  in  the  Eoman  world  from  the  second 
century  after  Christ,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  Chris- 
tian emperors.  In  fact  neither  Christianity  nor  Pagan- 
ism creates  it ;  it  seems  to  be  independent  of  both,  and 
arises  from  the  peculiar  genius  and  circumstances  of  an 
age.  Make  Art  a  fashion,  honor  and  reward  it,  crown 
its    great    masters   with   Olympic    leaves,  direct    the 


292  PHIDIAS. 

energies  of  an  age  or  race  upon  it,  and  we  probably 
shall  have  great  creations,  whether  the  people  are 
Christian  or  Pagan.  So  that  Art  seems  to  be  a  hu- 
man creation,  rather  than  a  divine  inspiration.  It 
is  the  result  of  genius,  stimulated  by  circum- 
stances and  directed  to  the  contemplation  of  ideal 
excellence. 

Much  has  been  written  on  those  principles  upon 
which  Art  is  supposed  to  be  founded,  but  not  very 
satisfactorily,  although  great  learning  and  ingenuity 
have  been  displayed.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of 
beauty  or  grace  by  definitions,  —  as  difficult  as  it  is  to 
define  love  or  any  other  ultimate  sentiment  of  the  souL 
"Metaphysics,  mathematics,  music,  and  pliilosophy," 
says  Cleghom,  "  have  been  called  in  to  analyze,  define, 
demonstrate,  or  generalize."  Great  critics,  like  Burke, 
Alison,  and  Stewart,  have  written  interesting  treatises 
on  beauty  and  taste.  "  Plato  represents  beauty  as  the 
contemplation  of  the  mind.  Leibnitz  maintained  that 
it  consists  in  perfection.  Diderot  referred  beauty  to 
the  idea  of  relation.  Blondel  asserted  that  it  was  in 
harmonic  proportions.  Leigh  speaks  of  it  as  the  music 
of  the  age."  These  definitions  do  not  much  assist  us. 
We  fall  back  on  our  own  conceptions  or  intuitions,  as 
probably  did  Phidias,  although  Art  in  Greece  could 
hardly  have  attained  such  perfection  without  the  aid 
which  poetry  and  history  and  philosophy  alike  afforded 


GREEK  ART.  293 


Art  can  flourish  only  as  the  taste  of  the  people  becomes 
cultivated,  and  by  the  assistance   of   many  kinds  of 
knowledge.     The  mere  contemplation  of  Nature  is  not 
enough.     Savages  have  no  art  at  all,  even  when  they 
live  amid  grand  mountains  and  beside  the  ever-chang- 
ing sea.     When  Phidias  was  asked  how  he  conceived 
his   Olympian   Jove,  he  referred  to  Homer's  poems. 
Michael  Angelo  was  enabled  to  paint  the  saints  and 
sibyls  of  the  Sistine  Chapel  from  familiarity  with  the 
writings  of  the  Jewish  prophets.     Isaiah  inspired  him 
as  truly  as  Homer  inspired  Phidias.     The  artists  of  the 
age  of  Phidias  were  encouraged  and  assisted  by  the 
great  poets,  historians,  and  philosophers  who  basked  in 
the  sunshine  of  Pericles,  even  as  the  great  men  in  the 
Court  of  Elizabeth  derived  no  small  share  of  their 
renown  from  her  glorious  appreciation.     Great  artists 
appear  in  clusters,  and  amid  the  other  constellations 
that  illuminate  the   intellectual  heavens.      They   all 
mutually  assist  each   other.      "When    Eome  lost  her 
great  men.  Art  declined.     When  the  egotism  of  Louis 
XIV.  extinguished  genius,  the  great  lights   in  aU  de- 
partments disappeared.     So  Art  is  indebted  not  merely 
to  the  contemplation  of  ideal  beauty,  but  to  the  in- 
fluence  of  great  ideas  permeating  society, — such  as 
when  the  age  of  Phidias  was  kindled  with  the  great 
thoughts  of  Socrates,  Democritus,  Thucydides,  Euripi- 
des, Aristophanes,  and  others,  whether  contemporaries 


294  PHIDIAS. 

or  not ;  a  sort  of  Augustan  or  Elizabethan  age,  never  to 
appear  but  once  among  the  same  people. 

Now,  in  reference  to  the  history  or  development  of 
ancient  Art,  until  it  culminated  in  the  age  of  Pericles, 
we  observe  that  its  first  expression  was  in  architecture, 
and  was  probably  the  result  of  religious  sentiments, 
when  nations  were  governed  by  priests,  and  not  dis- 
tinguished for  intellectual  life.  Then  arose  the  tem- 
ples of  Egypt,  of  Assyria,  of  India.  They  are  grand, 
massive,  imposing,  but  not  graceful  or  beautiful.  They 
arose  from  blended  superstition  and  piety,  and  were 
probably  erected  before  the  palaces  of  kings,  and  in 
Egypt  by  the  dynasty  that  builded  the  older  pyramids. 
Even  those  ambitious  and  prodigious  monuments,  which 
have  survived  every  thing  contemporaneous,  indicate 
the  reign  of  sacerdotal  monarchs  and  artists  who  had 
no  idea  of  beauty,  but  only  of  permanence.  They  do 
not  indicate  civilization,  but  despotism,  —  unless  it  be 
that  they  were  erected  for  astronomical  purposes,  as 
some  maintain,  rather  than  as  sepulchres  for  kings. 
But  this  supposition  involves  great  mathematical  attain- 
ments. It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  such  a  waste  of 
labor  by  enlightened  princes,  acquainted  with  astro- 
nomical and  mathematical  knowledge  and  mechanical 
forces,  for  Herodotus  tells  us  that  one  hundred  thou- 
sand men  toiled  on  the  Great  Pyramid  during  forty 
years.     What  for  ?    Surely  it  is  hard  to  suppose  that 


GREEK  ART.  295 


such  a  pile  was  necessary  for  the  observation  of  the 
polar  star;  and  still  less  probably  was  it  built  as  a 
sepulchre  for  a  king,  since  no  covered  sarcophagus  has 
ever  been  found  in  it,  nor  have  even  any  hieroglyphics. 
The  mystery  seems  impenetrable. 

But  the  temples  are  not  mysteries.  They  were 
built  also  by  sacerdotal  monarchs,  in  honor  of  the 
deity.  They  must  have  been  enormous,  perhaps  the 
most  imposing  ever  built  by  man :  witness  the  ruins 
of  Karnac  —  a  temple  designated  by  the  Greeks  as  that 
of  Jupiter  Ammon  —  with  its  large  blocks  of  stone 
seventy  feet  in  length,  on  a  platform  one  thousand 
feet  long  and  three  hundred  wide,  its  alleys  over  a 
mile  in  length  lined  with  colossal  sphinxes,  and  all 
adorned  with  obelisks  and  columns,  and  surrounded 
with  courts  and  colonnades,  like  Solomon's  temple,  to 
accommodate  the  crowds  of  worshippers  as  well  as 
priests.  But  these  enormous  structures  were  not 
marked  by  beauty  of  proportion  or  fitness  of  orna- 
ment ;  they  show  the  power  of  kings,  not  the  genius  of 
a  nation.  They  may  have  compelled  awe ;  they  did 
not  kindle  admiration.  The  emotion  they  called  out 
was  such  as  is  produced  now  by  great  engineering 
exploits,  involving  labor  and  mechanical  skill,  not 
suggestive  of  grace  or  harmony,  which  require  both 
taste  and  genius.  The  same  is  probably  true  of  Solo- 
mon's temple,  built  at  a  much  later  period,  when  Art 


296  PHIDIAS. 

had  been  advanced  somewhat  by  the  Phoenicians,  to 
whose  assistance  it  seems  he  was  much  indebted.  We 
cannot  conceive  how  that  famous  structure  should  have 
employed  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  for 
eleven  years,  and  have  cost  what  would  now  be  equal 
to  $200,000,000,  from  any  description  which  has  come 
down  to  us,  or  any  ruins  which  remain,  unless  it  were 
surrounded  by  vast  courts  and  colonnades,  and  orna- 
mented by  a  profuse  expenditure  of  golden  plates, — 
which  also  evince  both  power  and  money  rather  than 
architectural  genius. 

After  the  erection  of  temples  came  the  building  of 
palaces  for  kings,  equally  distinguished  for  vast  magni- 
tude and  mechanical  skill,  but  deficient  in  taste  and 
beauty,  showing  the  infancy  of  Art.  Yet  even  these 
were  in  imitation  of  the  temples.  And  as  kings  became 
proud  and  secular,  probably  their  palaces  became  gran- 
der and  larger, — like  the  palaces  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
and  Rameses  the  Great  and  the  Persian  monarchs  at 
Susa,  combining  labor,  skill,  expenditure,  dazzling  the 
eye  by  the  number  of  columns  and  statues  and  vast 
apartments,  yet  still  deficient  in  beauty  and  grace. 

It  was  not  until  the  Greeks  applied  their  wonderful 
genius  to  architecture  that  it  became  the  expression  of 
a  higher  civilization.  And,  as  among  Egyptians,  Art 
in  Greece  is  first  seen  in  temples;  for  the  earlier  Greeks 
werereligious,  although  they  worshipped  thedeity  under 


GREEK  ART.  297 


various  names,  and  in  the  forms  whicli  their  own  hands 
did  make. 

The  Dorians,  who  descended  from  the  mountains  of 
northern  Greece,  eighty  years  after  the  fall  of  Troy, 
were  the  first  who  added  substantially  to  the  archi- 
tectural art  of  Asiatic  nations,  by  giving  simplicity  and 
harmony  to  their  temples.  We  see  great  thickness  of 
columns,  a  fitting  proportion  to  the  capitals,  and  a 
beautiful  entablature.  The  horizontal  lines  of  the 
architrave  and  cornice  predominate  over  the  vertical 
lines  of  the  columns.  The  temple  arises  in  the  severity 
of  geometrical  forms.  The  Doric  column  was  not  en- 
tirely a  new  creation,  but  was  an  improvement  on  the 
Egyptian  model, — less  massive,  more  elegant,  fluted, 
increasiag  gradually  towards  the  base,  with  a  slight 
convexed  swelling  downward,  about  six  diameters  in 
height,  superimposed  by  capitals.  "  So  regular  was  the 
plan  of  the  temple,  that  if  the  dimensions  of  a  single 
column  and  the  proportion  the  entablature  should  bear 
to  it  were  given  to  two  individuals  acquainted  with 
this  style,  with  directions  to  compose  a  temple,  they 
would  produce  designs  exactly  similar  in  size,  arrange- 
ment, and  general  proportions."  And  yet  while  the 
style  of  all  the  Doric  temples  is  the  same,  there  are 
hardly  two  temples  alike,  being  varied  by  the  different 
proportions  of  the  column,  which  is  the  pecuhar  mark 
of  Grecian  architecture,  even  as  the  arch  is  the  feature 


298  PHIDIAS. 

of  Gothic  architecture.  The  later  Doric  was  less 
massive  than  the  earlier,  but  more  rich  in  sculptured 
ornaments.  The  pedestal  was  from  two  thirds  to  a 
whole  diameter  of  a  column  in  height,  built  in  three 
courses,  forming  as  it  were  steps  to  the  platform  on 
which  the  pillar  rested.  The  pillar  had  twenty  flutes, 
with  a  capital  of  half  a  diameter,  supporting  the  en- 
tablature. This  again,  two  diameters  in  height,  was 
divided  into  architrave,  frieze,  and  cornice.  But  the 
great  beauty  of  the  temple  was  the  portico  in  front, 
—  a  forest  of  columns,  supporting  the  pediment  above, 
which  had  at  the  base  an  angle  of  about  fourteen  de- 
grees. From  the  pediment  the  beautiful  cornice  pro- 
jects with  various  mouldings,  while  at  the  base  and  at 
the  apex  are  sculptured  monuments  representing  both 
men  and  animals.  The  graceful  outline  of  the  columns, 
and  the  variety  of  light  and  shade  arising  from  the 
arrangement  of  mouldings  and  capitals,  produced  an 
effect  exceedingly  beautiful  AU  the  glories  of  this 
order  of  architecture  culminated  in  the  Parthenon, — 
buUt  of  Pentelic  marble,  resting  on  a  basement  of  lime- 
stone, surrounded  with  forty-eight  fluted  columns  of 
six  feet  and  two  inches  diameter  at  the  base  and  thirty- 
four  feet  in  height,  the  frieze  and  pediment  elaborately 
ornamented  with  reliefs  and  statues,  while  within  the 
cella  or  interior  was  the  statue  of  Minerva,  forty  feet 
high,  built  of  gold  and  ivory.    The  walls  were  decorated 


GREEK  ART.  299 


with  the  rarest  paintings,  and  the  cella  itself  contained 
countless  treasures.  This  unrivalled  temple  was  not 
so  large  as  some  of  the  cathedrals  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
but  it  covered  twelve  times  the  ground  of  the  temple  of 
Solomon,  and  from  the  summit  of  the  Acropolis  it  shone 
as  a  wonder  and  a  glory.  The  marbles  have  crumbled 
and  its  ornaments  have  been  removed,  but  it  has  formed 
the  model  of  the  most  beautiful  buildings  of  the  world, 
from  the  Quirinus  at  Rome  to  the  Madeleine  at  Paris, 
stimulating  alike  the  genius  of  Michael  Angelo  and 
Christopher  Wren,  immortal  in  the  ideas  it  has  per- 
petuated, and  immeasurable  in  the  influence  it  has 
exerted.  Who  has  copied  the  Flavian  amphitheatre 
except  as  a  convenient  form  for  exhibitors  on  the  stage, 
or  for  the  rostrum  of  an  orator  ?  Who  has  not  copied 
the  Parthenon  as  the  severest  in  its  proportions  for 
public  buildiugs  for  civic  purposes  ? 

The  Ionic  architecture  is  only  a  modification  of  the 
Doric, — its  columns  more  slender  and  with  a  greater 
number  of  flutes,  and  capitals  more  elaborate,  formed 
with  volutes  or  spiral  scrolls,  while  its  pediment,  the 
triangular  facing  of  the  portico,  is  formed  with  a  less 
angle  from  the  base,  —  the  whole  being  more  sug- 
gestive of  grace  than  strength.  Vitruvius,  the  great- 
est authority  among  the.  ancients,  says  that  "the 
Greeks,  in  inventing  these  two  kinds  of  columns, 
imitated  in  the  one  the  naked  simplicity  and  aspects 

VOL.  I.  — 18 


300  PHIDIAS. 

of  a  man,  and  in  the  other  the  delicacy  and  orna- 
ments of  a  woman,  whose  ringlets  appear  in  the  volutes 
of  the  capital." 

The  Corinthian  order,  which  was  clie  most  copied 
by  the  Eomans,  was  still  more  ornamented,  with  fo- 
liated capitals,  greater  height,  and  a  more  decorated 
entablature. 

But  the  principles  of  all  th&se  three  orders  are  sub- 
stantially the  same,  —  their  beauty  consisting  in  the 
column  and  horizontal  lines,  even  as  vertical  lines 
marked  the  Gothic.  We  see  the  lintel  and  not  the 
arch;  huge  blocks  of  stone  perfectly  squared,  and  not 
small  stones  irregularly  laid ;  external  rather  than  in- 
ternal pillars,  the  cella  receiving  light  from  the  open 
roof  above,  rather  than  from  windows ;  a  simple  out- 
line uninterrupted,  —  generally  in  the  form  of  a  paral- 
lelogram,—  rather  than  broken  by  projections.  There 
is  no  great  variety ;  but  the  harmony,  the  severity,  and 
beauty  of  proportion  will  eternally  be  admired,  and  can 
never  be  improved,  —  a  temple  of  humanity,  cheerful, 
useful,  complete,  not  aspiring  to  reach  what  on  earth 
can  never  be  obtained,  with  no  gloomy  vaults  speaking 
of  maceration  and  grief,  no  lofty  towers  and  spires  soar- 
ing to  the  sky,  no  emblems  typical  of  consecrated  sen- 
timents and  of  immortality  beyond  the  grave,  but  rich 
in  ornaments  drawn  from  the  living  world,  — of  plants 
and  animals,   of   man   in  the  perfection   of  physical 


GREEK  ART.  301 


strength,  of  woman  in  the  unapproachable  loveliness 
of  grace  of  form.  As  the  world  becomes  pagan,  intel- 
lectual, thrifty,  we  see  the  architecture  of  the  Greeks 
in  palaces,  banks,  halls,  theatres,  stores,  libraries;  when 
it  is  emotional,  poetic,  religious,  fervent,  aspiring,  we 
see  the  restoration  of  the  Gothic  in  churches,  cathe- 
drals, schools,  —  for  Philosophy  and  Art  did  all  they 
could  to  civilize  the  world  before  Christianity  was 
sent  to  redeem  it  and  prepare  mankind  for  the  life 
above.  Such  was  the  temple  of  the  Greeks,  reappear- 
ing in  all  the  architectures  of  nations,  from  the 
Eomans  to  our  own  times,  —  so  perfect  that  no  im- 
provements have  subsequently  been  made,  no  new 
principles  discovered  which  were  not  known  to  Vitru- 
vius.  What  a  creation,  to  last  in  its  simple  beauty 
for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  and  forever  to  re- 
main a  perfect  model  of  its  kind!  Ah,  that  was  a 
triumph  of  Art,  the  praises  of  which  have  been  sung 
for  more  than  sixty  generations,  and  will  be  sung  for 
hundreds  yet  to  come.  But  how  hidden  and  forgotten 
the  great  artists  who  invented  all  this,  showing  the 
littleness  of  man  and  the  greatness  of  Art  itself.  How 
true  that  old  Greek  saying,  "  Life  is  short,  but  Art  is 
long." 

But  the  genius  displayed  in  sculpture  was  equally 
remarkable,  and  was  carried  to  the  same  perfection. 
The  Greeks  did  not  originate  sculpture.     We  read  of 


302  PHIDIAS. 

sculptured  images  from  remotest  antiquity.  Assyria, 
Egypt,  and  India  are  full  of  relics.  But  these  are 
rude,  unformed,  without  grace,  without  expression, 
though  often  colossal  and  grand.  There  are  but  few 
traces  of  emotion,  or  passion,  or  intellectual  force. 
Everything  which  has  come  down  from  the  ancient 
monarchies  is  calm,  impassive,  imperturbable.  Nor 
is  there  a  severe  beauty  of  form.  There  is  no  grace, 
no  loveliness,  that  we  should  desire  them.  Nature 
was  not  severely  studied.  We  see  no  aspiration  after 
what  is  ideaL  Sometimes  the  sculptures  are  gro- 
tesque, unnatural,  and  impure.  They  are  emblematic 
of  strange  deities,  or  are  rude  monuments  of  heroes 
and  kings.  They  are  curious,  but  they  do  not  inspire 
us.  We  do  not  copy  them ;  we  turn  away  from  them. 
They  do  not  live,  and  they  are  not  reproduced.  Art 
could  spare  them  all,  except  as  illustrations  of  its 
progress.  They  are  merely  historical  monuments,  to 
show  despotism  and  superstition,  and  the  degradation 
of  the  people. 

But  this  cannot  be  said  of  the  statues  which  the 
Greeks  created,  or  improved  from  ancient  models.  In 
the  sculptures  of  the  Greeks  we  see  the  utmost  per- 
fection of  the  human  form,  both  of  man  and  woman, 
learned  by  the  constant  study  of  anatomy  and  of  nude 
figures  of  the  greatest  beauty.  A  famous  statue  repre- 
sented the  combined  excellences  of  perhaps  one  hun- 


GREEK  ART.  303 


dred  different  persons.  The  study  of  the  human  figure 
became  a  noble  object  of  ambition,  and  led  to  concep- 
tions of  ideal  grace  and  loveliness  such  as  no  one 
human  being  perhaps  ever  possessed  in  all  respects. 
And  not  merely  grace  and  beauty  were  thus  repre- 
sented in  marble  or  bronze,  but  dignity,  repose,  ma- 
jesty. We  see  in  those  figures  which  have  survived 
the  ravages  of  time  suggestions  of  motion,  rest,  grace, 
grandeur,  —  every  attitude,  every  posture,  every  variety 
of  form.  We  see  also  every  passion  which  moves  the 
human  soul,  —  grief,  rage,  agony,  shame,  joy,  peace. 
But  it  is  the  perfection  of  form  which  is  most  wonder- 
ful and  striking.  Nor  did  the  artists  work  to  please 
the  vulgar  rich,  but  to  realize  their  own  highest  con- 
ceptions, and  to  represent  sentiments  in  which  the 
whole  nation  shared.  They  sought  to  instruct;  they 
appealed  to  the  highest  intelligence.  "Some  sought 
to  represent  tender  beauty,  others  daring  power,  and 
others  again  heroic  grandeur."  Grecian  statuary  began 
with  ideal  representations  of  deities ;  then  it  pro- 
duced the  figures  of  gods  and  goddesses  in  mortal  forms; 
then  the  portrait-statues  of  distinguished  men.  This 
art  was  later  in  its  development  than  architecture, 
since  it  was  directed  to  ornamenting  what  had  already 
nearly  reached  perfection.-  Thus  Phidias  ornamented 
the  Parthenon  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  when  sculpture 
was  purest  and  most  ideal     In  some  points  of  view 


304  PHIDIAS. 

it  declined  after  Phidias,  but  in  other  respects  it 
continued  to  improve  untU  it  culminated  in  Lysippus, 
who  was  contemporaneous  with  Alexander.  He  is  said 
to  have  executed  fifteen  hundred  statues,  and  to  have 
displayed  great  energy  of  execution.  He  idealized  hu- 
man beauty,  and  imitated  Nature  to  the  minutest  details. 
He  alone  was  selected  to  make  the  statue  of  Alexander, 
which  is  lost.  None  of  his  works,  which  were  chiefly 
in  bronze,  are  extant;  but  it  is  supposed  that  the  famous 
Hercules  and  the  Torso  Belvedere  are  copies  from  his 
works,  since  his  favorite  subject  was  Hercules.  We  only 
can  judge  of  his  great  merits  from  his  transcendent  repu- 
tation and  the  criticism  of  classic  writers,  and  also  from 
the  works  that  have  come  down  to  us  which  are  supposed 
to  be  imitations  of  his  masterpieces.  It  was  his  schol- 
ars who  sculptured  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes,  the  Laocoon, 
and  the  Dying  Gladiator.  After  him  plastic  art  rapidly 
degenerated,  since  it  appealed  to  passion,  especially 
under  Praxiteles,  who  was  famous  for  his  undraped 
Venuses  and  the  expression  of  sensual  charms.  The 
decline  of  Art  was  rapid  as  men  became  rich,  and  Epi- 
curean life  was  sought  as  the  highest  good.  Skill  of 
execution  did  not  decline,  but  ideal  beauty  was  lost 
sight  of,  until  the  art  itself  was  prostituted  —  as  among 
the  Romans  —  to  please  perverted  tastes  or  to  flatter 
senatorial  pride. 
But  our  present  theme  is  not  the  history  of  decline, 


GREEK  ART.  305 


but  of  the  original  creations  of  genius,  which  have  been 
copied  in  every  succeeding  age,  and  which  probably  will 
never  be  surpassed,  except  in  some  inferior  respects,  —  in 
mere  mechanical  skill.  The  Olyvipian  Jove  of  Phidias 
lives  perhaps  in  the  Moses  of  Michael  Angelo,  great  as 
was  his  original  genius,  even  as  the  Venus  of  Praxiteles 
may  have  been  reproduced  in  Powers's  Greeh  Slave.  The 
great  masters  had  innumerable  imitators,  not  merely 
in  the  representation  of  man  but  of  animals.  What 
a  study  did  these  artists  excite,  especially  in  their  own 
age,  and  how  honorable  did  they  make  their  noble 
profession  even  in  degenerate  times !  They  were  the 
schoolmasters  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  per- 
petuating their  ideas  to  remotest  generations.  Their 
instructions  were  not  lost,  and  never  can  be  lost  in  a 
realm  which  constitutes  one  of  the  proudest  features 
of  our  own  civilization.  It  is  true  that  Christianity 
does  not  teach  aesthetic  culture,  but  it  teaches  the 
duties  which  prevent  the  eclipse  of  Art.  In  this  way 
it  comes  to  the  rescue  of  Art  when  in  danger  of  being 
perverted.  Grecian  Art  was  consecrated  to  Paganism, 
—  but,  revived,  it  may  indirectly  be  made  tributary 
to  Christianity,  like  music  and  eloquence.  It  will  not 
conserve  Christianity,  but  may  be  purified  by  it,  even 
if  able  to  flourish  without  it. 

I  can  now  only  glance  at  the  third  development  of 
Grecian  Art,  as  seen  in  painting. 


306  PHIDIAS. 

It  is  not  probable  that  such  perfection  was  reached 
in  this  art  as  in  sculpture  and  architecture.  We  have 
no  means  of  forming  incontrovertible  opinions.  Most 
of  the  ancient  pictures  have  perished ;  and  those  that 
remain,  while  they  show  correctness  of  drawing  and 
brilliant  coloring,  do  not  give  us  as  high  conceptions 
of  ideal  beauties  as  do  the  pictures  of  the  great  mas- 
ters of  modem  times.  But  we  have  the  testimony  of 
the  ancients  themselves,  who  were  as  enthusiastic  in 
their  admiration  of  pictures  as  they  were  of  statues. 
And  since  their  taste  was  severe,  and  their  sensibility 
as  to  beauty  unquestioned,  we  have  a  right  to  infer  that 
even  painting  was  carried  to  considerable  perfection 
among  the  Greeks.  "We  read  of  celebrated  schools, — 
like  the  modem  schools  of  Florence,  Rome,  Bologna, 
Venice,  and  Naples.  The  schools  of  Sicyon,  Corinth, 
Athens,  and  Rhodes  were  as  famous  in  their  day  as 
the  modem  schools  to  which  I  have  alluded. 

Painting,  being  strictly  a  decoration,  did  not  reach 
a  high  degree  of  art,  like  sculpture,  until  architecture 
was  perfected.  But  painting  is  very  ancient.  The 
walls  of  Babylon,  it  is  asserted  by  the  ancient  histo- 
rians, were  covered  with  paintings.  Many  survive 
amid  the  ruins  of  Egypt  and  on  the  chests  of  mum- 
mies; though  these  are  comparatively  rude,  without 
regard  to  light  and  shade,  like  Cliinese  pictures.  Nor 
do  they  represent  passions  and  emotions.     They  aimed 


GREEK  ART.  307 


to  perpetuate  historical  events,  not  ideas.  The  fiist 
paintings  of  the  Greeks  simply  marked  out  the  outline 
of  figures.  Next  appeared  the  inner  markings,  as  we  see 
in  ancient  vases,  on  a  white  ground.  The  effects  of  light 
and  shade  were  then  introduced ;  and  then  the  appHca- 
tion  of  colors  in  accordance  with  Nature.  Cimon  of 
Cleonse,  in  the  eightieth  Olympiad,  invented  the  art 
of  "fore-shortening,"  and  hence  was  the  first  painter 
of  perspective.  Polygnotus,  a  contemporary  of  Phidias, 
was  nearly  as  famous  for  painting  as  he  was  for  sculp- 
ture. He  was  the  first  who  painted  woman  with  bril- 
liant drapery  and  variegated  head-dresses.  He  gave  to 
the  cheek  the  blush  and  to  his  draperies  gracefulness. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  a  great  epic  painter,  as  Phidias 
was  an  epic  sculptor  and  Homer  an  epic  poet.  He  ex- 
pressed, like  them,  ideal  beauty.  But  his  pictures  had 
no  elaborate  grouping,  which  is  one  of  the  excellences 
of  modern  art.  His  figures  were  all  in  regular  lines, 
like  the  bas-reliefs  on  a  frieze.  He  took  his  subjects 
from  epic  poetry.  He  is  celebrated  for  his  accurate 
drawing,  and  for  the  charm  and  grace  of  his  female 
figures.  He  also  gave  great  grandeur  to  his  figures, 
like  Michael  Angelo.  Contemporary  with  him  was 
Dionysius,  who  was  remarkable  for  expression,  and 
Micon,  who  was  skilled  in  painting  horses. 

With  Apollodorus  of  Athens,  who  flourished  toward 
the   close   of  the   fifth   century  before   Christ,  there 


308  PHIDIAS. 

was  a  new  development,  —  that  of  dramatic  effect. 
His  aim  was  to  deceive  the  eye  of  the  spectator  by  the 
appearance  of  reality.  He  painted  men  and  things  as 
they  appeared.  He  also  improved  coloring,  invented 
chiaroscuro  (or  the  art  of  relief  by  a  proper  distribution 
of  the  lights  and  shadows),  and  thus  obtained  what  is 
called  "  tone."  He  prepared  the  way  for  Zeuxis,  who 
surpassed  him  in  the  power  to  give  beauty  to  forms. 
The  Helen  of  Zeuxis  was  painted  from  five  of  the 
most  beautiful  women  of  Croton.  He  aimed  at  com- 
plete illusion  of  the  senses,  as  in  the  instance  recorded 
of  his  grape  picture.  His  style  was  modified  by  the 
contemplation  of  the  sculptures  of  Phidias,  and  he 
taught  the  true  method  of  grouping.  His  marked  ex-- 
cellence  was  in  the  contrast  of  light  and  shade.  He 
did  not  paint  ideal  excellence;  he  was  not  sufficiently 
elevated  in  his  own  moral  sentiments  to  elevate  the 
feelings  of  others:  he  painted  sensuous  beauty  as  it 
appeared  in  the  models  which  he  used.  But  he  was 
greatly  extolled,  and  accumulated  a  great  fortune,  like 
Rubens,  and  lived  ostentatiously,  as  rich  and  fortunate 
men  ever  have  lived  who  do  not  possess  elevation  of 
sentiment.  His  headquarters  were  not  at  Athens,  but 
at  Ephesus,  —  a  city  which  also  produced  Parrhasius, 
to  whom  Zeuxis  himself  gave  the  palm,  since  he  de- 
ceived the  painter  by  his  curtain,  while  Zeuxis  only 
deceived  birds  by  his  grapes.     Parrhasius  established 


GREEK  ART.  309 


the  rule  of  proportions,  which  was  followed  by  succeed- 
ing artists.  He  was  a  very  luxurious  and  arrogant 
man,  and  fancied  he  had  reached  the  perfection  of 
his  art. 

But  if  that  was  ever  reached  among  the  ancients  it 
was  by  Apelles,  —  the  Titian  of  that  day, — who  united 
the  rich  coloring  of  the  Ionian  school  with  the  scientific 
severity  of  the  school  of  Sicyonia.  He  alone  was  per- 
mitted to  paint  the  figure  of  Alexander,  as  Lysippus 
only  was  allowed  to  represent  him  in  bronze.  He  in- 
vented ivory  black,  and  was  the  first  to  cover  his  pic- 
tures with  a  coating  of  varnish,  to  bring  out  the  colors 
and  preserve  them.  His  distinguishing  excellency  was 
grace,  —  "that  artless  balance  of  motion  and  repose," 
says  Fuseli,  "springing  from  character  and  founded  on 
propriety."  Others  may  have  equalled  him  in  perspec- 
tive, accuracy,  and  finish,  but  he  added  a  refinement  of 
taste  which  placed  him  on  the  throne  which  is  now 
given  to  EaphaeL  No  artists  could  complete  his  unfin- 
ished pictures.  He  courted  the  severest  criticism,  and, 
like  Michael  Angelo,  had  no  jealousy  of  the  fame  of 
other  artists ;  he  reposed  in  the  greatness  of  his  own 
self-consciousness.  He  must  have  made  enormous  sums 
of  money,  since  one  of  his  pictures  —  a  Venus  rising 
out  of  the  sea,  painted  for  a  temple  in  Cos,  and  after- 
wards removed  by  Augustus  to  Rome  —  cost  one  hun- 
dred talents  (equal  to  about  one  hundred  thousand 


310  PHIDIAS. 

dollars),  —  a  greater  sum,  I  apprehend,  than  was  ever 
paid  to  a  modern  artist  for  a  single  picture,  certainly  in 
view  of  the  relative  value  of  gold.  In  this  picture 
female  grace  was  impersonated. 

After  ApeUes  the  art  declined,  although  there  were 
distinguished  artists  for  several  centuries.  They  gene- 
rally flocked  to  Eome,  where  there  was  the  greatest 
luxury  and  extravagance,  and  they  pandered  to  vanity 
and  a  vitiated  taste.  The  masterpieces  of  the  old  artists 
brought  enormous  sums,  as  the  works  of  the  old  masters 
do  now ;  and  they  were  brought  to  Eome  by  the  con- 
querors, as  the  masterpieces  of  Italy  and  Spain  and 
Flanders  were  brought  to  Paris  by  Napoleon.  So  Eome 
gradually  possessed  the  best  pictures  of  the  world,  with- 
out stimulating  the  art  or  making  new  creations;  it 
could  appreciate  genius,  but  creative  genius  expired 
with  Grecian  liberties  and  glories.  Eome  multiplied 
and  rewarded  painters,  but  none  of  them  were  famous. 
Pictures  were  as  common  as  statues.  Even  Varro,  a 
learned  writer,  had  a  gallery  of  seven  hundred  por- 
traits. Pictures  were  placed  in  aU  the  baths,  theatres, 
temples,  and  palaces,  as  were  statues. 

We  are  forced,  therefore,  to  beheve  that  the  Greeks 
carried  painting  to  the  same  perfection  that  they  did 
sculpture,  not  only  from  the  praises  of  critics  like  Cicero 
and  Pliny,  but  from  the  universal  enthusiasm  which  the 
painters  created  and  the  enormous  prices  they  received. 


GREEK  ART.  311 


Whether  Polygnotus  was  equal  to  Michael  Angelo, 
Zeuxis  to  Titian,  and  Apelles  to  Raphael,  we  cannot 
tell.  Their  works  have  perished.  What  remains  to  us, 
in  the  mural  decorations  of  Pompeii  and  the  designs  on 
vases,  seem  to  confirm  the  criticisms  of  the  ancients. 
We  cannot  conceive  how  the  Greek  painters  could  have 
equalled  the  great  Italian  masters,  since  they  had  fewer 
colors,  and  did  not  make  use  of  oil,  but  of  gums  mixed 
with  the  white  of  eggs,  and  resin  and  wax,  which  mix- 
ture we  call  "  encaustic."  Yet  it  is  not  the  perfection 
of  colors  or  of  design,  or  mechanical  aids,  or  exact 
imitations,  or  perspective  skill,  which  constitute  the 
highest  excellence  of  the  painter,  but  his  power  of 
creation,  —  the  power  of  giving  ideal  beauty  and  gran- 
deur and  grace,  inspired  by  the  contemplation  of  eternal 
ideas,  an  excellence  which  appears  in  all  the  master- 
works  of  the  Greeks,  and  such  as  has  not  been  surpassed 
by  the  modems. 

But  Art  was  not  confined  to  architecture,  sculpture, 
and  painting  alone.  It  equally  appears  in  all  the  liter- 
ature of  Greece.  The  Greek  poets  were  artists,  as  also 
the  orators  and  historians,  in  the  highest  sense.  They 
were  the  creators  of  style  in  writing,  which  we  do  not 
see  in  the  literature  of  the  Jews  or  other  Oriental  na- 
tions, marvellous  and  profound  as  were  their  thoughts. 
The  Greeks  had  the  power  of  putting  things  so  as 
to  make  the  greatest  impression  on  the  mmd.    This 


312  PHIDIAS. 

especially  appears  among  such  poets  as  Sophocles  and 
Euripides,  such  orators  as  Pericles  and  Demosthenes, 
such  historians  as  Xenophon  and  Thucydides,  such 
philosophers  as  Plato  and  Aristotle.  We  see  in  their 
finished  productions  no  repetitions,  no  useless  expres- 
sions, no  superfluity  or  redundancy,  no  careless  arrange- 
ment, no  words  even  in  bad  taste,  save  in  the  abusive 
epithets  in  which  the  orators  indulged.  All  is  as  har- 
monious in  their  literary  style  as  in  plastic  art ;  while 
we  read,  unexpected  pleasures  arise  in  the  mind,  based 
on  beauty  and  harmony,  somewhat  similar  to  the  en- 
joyment of  artistic  music,  or  as  when  we  read  Voltaire, 
Kousseau,  or  Macaulay.  We  perceive  art  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  sentences,  in  the  rhythm,  in  the  sym- 
metry of  construction.  We  see  means  adapted  to  an 
end.  The  Latin  races  are  most  marked  for  artistic 
writing,  especially  the  French,  who  seem  to  be  copyists 
of  Greek  and  Eoman  models.  We  see  very  little  of 
this  artistic  writing  among  the  Germans,  who  seem 
to  disdain  it  as  much  as  an  English  lawyer  or  states- 
man does  rhetoric.  It  is  in  rhetoric  and  poetry  that 
Art  most  strikingly  appears  in  the  writings  of  the 
Greeks,  and  this  was  perfected  by  the  Athenian  Soph- 
ists. But  all  the  Greeks,  and  after  them  the  Eomans, 
especially  in  the  time  of  Cicero,  sought  the  graces  and 
fascinations  of  style.  Style  is  an  art,  and  all  art  is 
eternal 


GREEK  ART.  313 


It  is  probable  also  that  Art  was  manifested  to  a  high 
degree  in  the  conversation  of  the  Greeks,  as  they  were 
brilliant  talkers,—  like  Brougham,  Mackintosh,  Madame 
de  Stael,  and  Macaulay,  in  our  times. 

But  I  may  not  follow  out,  as  I  could  wish,  this  de- 
partment of  Art,  —  generally  overlooked,  certainly  not 
dwelt  upon  like  pictures  and  statues.  An  interest- 
ing and  captivating  writer  or  speaker  is  as  much  an 
artist  as  a  sculptor  or  musician;  and  unless  authors 
possess  art  their  works  are  apt  to  perish,  like  those  of 
Varro,  the  most  learned  of  the  Eomans.  It  is  the  ex- 
quisite art  seen  in  all  the  writings  of  Cicero  which  makes 
them  classic ;  it  is  the  style  rather  than  the  ideas.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  Horace :  it  is  his  elegance  of  style 
and  language  which  makes  him  immortal  It  is  this 
singular  fascination  of  language  and  style  which  keeps 
Hume  on  the  list  of  standard  and  classic  writers,  like 
Pascal,  Goldsmith,  Voltaire,  and  F(inelon.  It  is  on 
account  of  these  excellences  that  the  classical  writers 
of  antiquity  will  never  lose  their  popularity,  and  for 
which  they  will  be  imitated,  and  by  which  they  have 
exerted  their  vast  influence. 

Art,  therefore,  in  every  department,  was  carried  to 
high  excellence  by  the  Greeks,  and  they  thus  became 
the  teachers  of  all  succeeding  races  and  ages.  Artists 
are  great  exponents  of  civilization.  They  are  generally 
learned  men,  appreciated  by  the  cultivated  classes,  and 


314  PHIDIAS. 

usually  associating  with  the  rich  and  proud.  The 
Popes  rewarded  artists  while  they  crushed  reformers. 
I  never  read  of  an  artist  who  was  persecuted.  Men 
do  not  turn  with  disdain  or  anger  in  disputing  with 
them,  as  they  do  from  great  moral  teachers;  artists 
provoke  no  opposition  and  stir  up  ho  hostile  passions. 
It  is  the  men  who  propound  agitating  ideas  and  who 
revolutionize  the  character  of  nations,  that  are  perse- 
cuted. Artists  create  no  revolutions,  not  even  of  thought. 
Savonarola  kindled  a  greater  fire  in  Florence  than  all 
the  artists  whom  the  Medici  ever  patronized.  But  if 
the  artists  cannot  wear  the  crown  of  apostles  and  re- 
formers and  sages,  —  the  men  who  save  nations,  men 
like  Socrates,  Luther,  Bacon,  Descartes,  Burke,  —  yet 
they  have  fewer  evils  to  contend  with  in  their  progress, 
and  they  still  leave  a  mighty  impression  behind  them, 
not  like  that  of  Moses  and  Paul,  but  still  an  influence ; 
they  kuidle  the  enthusiasm  of  a  class  that  cannot  be 
kindled  by  ideas,  and  furnish  inexhaustible  themes  of 
conversation  to  cultivated  people  and  make  life  itself 
graceful  and  beautiful,  enriching  our  houses  and  adorn- 
ing our  consecrated  temples  and  elevating  our  better 
sentiments.  The  great  artist  is  himself  immortal,  even 
if  he  contributes  very  little  to  save  the  world.  Art 
seeks  only  the  perfection  of  outward  form ;  it  is 
mundane  in  its  labors ;  it  does  not  aspire  to  those 
beatitudes  which  shine  beyond  the  grave.     And  yet  it 


GREEK  ART.  315 


is  a  great  and  invaluable  assistance  to  those  who  ■vrould 
communicate  great  truths,  since  it  puts  them  in  attraC' 
tive  forms  and  increases  the  impression  of  .the  truths 
themselves.  To  the  orator,  the  historian,  the  philoso- 
pher, and  the  poet,  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  Art 
is  as  important  as  to  the  architect,  the  sculptor,  and 
the  painter ;  and  these  principles  are  learned  only  by 
study  and  labor,  while  they  cannot  be  even  conceived 
of  by  ordinary  men. 

Thus  it  would  appear  that  in  all  departments  and  in 
all  the  developments  of  Art  the  Greeks  were  the 
teachers  of  the  modem  European  nations,  as  weU  of 
the  ancient  Eomans;  and  their  teachings  will  be  in- 
valuable to  all  the  nations  which  are  yet  to  arise, 
since  no  great  improvement  has  been  made  on  the 
models  which  have  come  down  to  us,  and  no  new 
principles  have  been  discovered  which  were  not  known 
to  them.  In  everything  which  pertains  to  Art  they 
were  benefactors  of  the  human  race,  and  gave  a  great 
impulse  to  civilization. 


VOL.  I.  — 19 


316  PHIDIAS. 


AUTHORITIES. 

Mailer's  De  Phidiae  Vita,  Vitruvius,  Aristotle.  Pliny,  Ovid,  Martial, 
Lacian,  and  Cicero  have  made  criticisms  on  ancient  Art.  The  modem 
writers  are  very  numerous,  especially  among  the  Germans  and  the  French, 
From  these  may  be  selected  Winckelmann's  History  of  Ancient  Art ;  Miil- 
ler'g  Remains  of  Ancient  Art ;  Donaldson's  Antiquities  of  Athens ;  Sir  W. 
Gill's  Pompeiana ;  Montfau5on'8  Antiquit^Expliquee  en  Figures;  Ancient 
Marbles  of  the  British  Museum,  by  Taylor  Combe;  Mayer's  Kunstge- 
schicte ;  Cleghorn's  Ancient  and  Modem  Art ;  Wilkinson's  Topography  of 
Thebes  ;  Dodwell's  Classical  Tour ;  Wilkinson' s  Ancient  Egyptians ;  Flax- 
man's  Lectures  on  Sculpture;  Fuseli's  Lectures;  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's 
Lectures ;  also  see  five  articles  on  Painting,  Sculpture,  and  Architecture,  in 
the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  and  in  Smith's  Dictionary. 


LITERARY   GENIUS: 

THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS. 


LITERARY  GENIUS: 


THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS. 

"XT /"E  know  but  little  of  the  literature  of  antic[uity 
until  the  Greeks  applied  to  it  the  principles 
of  art.  The  Sanskrit  language  has  revealed  the  ancient 
literature  of  the  Hindus,  which  is  chiefly  confined  to 
mystical  religious  poetry,  and  which  has  already  been 
mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  "  Ancient  Eeligions." 
There  was  no  history  worthy  the  name  in  India.  The 
Egyptians  and  Babylonians  recorded  the  triumphs  of 
warriors  and  domestic  events,  but  those  were  mere  an- 
nals without  literary  value.  It  is  true  that  the  literary 
remains  of  Egypt  show  a  reading  and  writing  people 
as  early  as  three  thousand  years  before  Christ,  and  in 
their  various  styles  of  pen-language  reveal  a  remark- 
able variety  of  departments  and  topics  treated,  —  books 
of  religion,  of  theology,  of  ethics,  of  medicine,  of  astron- 
omy, of  magic,  of  mythic  poetry,  of  fiction,  of  personal 
correspondence,  etc.  The  difficulties  of  deciphering 
them,  however,  and  their  many  peculiarities  and  for- 


320  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

malisms  of  style,  render  them  rather  of  curious  histori- 
cal and  archaeological  than  of  literary  interest.  The 
Chinese  annals  also  extend  back  to  a  remote  period, 
for  Confucius  wrote  history  as  well  as  ethics ;  but 
Chinese  literature  has  comparatively  little  interest  for 
us,  as  also  that  of  all  Oriental  nations,  except  the 
Hindu  Vedas  and  the  Persian  Zend-Avesta,  and  a 
few  other  poems  showing  great  fertility  of  the  im- 
agination, with  a  peculiar  tenderness  and  pathos. 

Accordingly,  as  I  wish  to  show  chiefly  the  triumphs 
of  ancient  genius  when  directed  to  literature  generally, 
and  especially  such  as  has  had  a  direct  influence  upon 
our  modem  literature,  I  confine  myself  to  that  of 
Greece  and  Eome.  Even  our  present  civilization  de- 
lights in  the  masterpieces  of  the  classical  poets,  his- 
torians, orators,  and  essayists,  and  seeks  to  rival  them. 
Long  before  Christianity  became  a  power  the  great 
literary  artists  of  Greece  had  reached  perfection  in 
style  and  language,  especially  in  Athens,  to  which 
city  youths  were  sent  to  be  educated,  as  to  a  sort  of 
university  town  where  the  highest  culture  was  known. 
Educated  Romans  were  as  familiar  with  the  Greek 
classics  as  they  were  with  those  of  their  own  country, 
and  could  talk  Greek  as  the  modern  cultivated  Ger- 
mans talk  French.  Without  the  aid  of  Greece,  Eome 
could  never  have  reached  the  civilization  to  which 
she  attained. 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      321 


How  rich  in  poetry  was  classical  antiquity,  whether 
sung  in  the  Greek  or  Latin  language!  In  all  those 
qualities  which  give  immortality  classical  poetry  has 
never  been  surpassed,  whether  in  simplicity,  in  pas- 
sion, in  fervor,  in  fidelity  to  nature,  in  wit,  or  in 
imagination.  It  existed  from  the  early  times  of 
Greek  civilization,  and  continued  to  within  a  brief 
period  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire.  With  the 
rich  accumulation  of  ages  the  Romans  were  familiar. 
They  knew  nothing  indeed  of  the  solitary  grandeur 
of  the  Jewish  muse,  or  the  Nature-myths  of  the 
ante-Homeric  singers ;  but  they  possessed  the  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssey,  with  their  wonderful  truthfulness, 
their  clear  portraiture  of  character,  their  absence  of 
all  affectation,  their  serenity  and  cheerfulness,  their 
good  sense  and  healthful  sentiments,  withal  so  origi- 
nal that  the  germ  of  almost  every  character  which  has 
since  figured  in  epic  poetry  can  be  found  in  them. 

We  see  in  Homer  a  poet  of  the  first  class,  hold- 
ing the  same  place  in  literature  that  Plato  holds  in 
philosophy  or  Newton  in  science,  and  exercising  a 
mighty  influence  on  all  the  ages  which  have  suc- 
ceeded him.  He  was  born,  probably,  at  Smyrna,  an 
Ionian  city ;  the  dates  attributed  to  him  range  from 
the  seventh  to  the  twelfth  century  before  Christ. 
Herodotus  puts  him  at  850  b.  c.  For  nearly  three 
thousand  years  his  immortal  creations  have  been  the 


322  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

delight  and  the  inspiration  of  men  of  genius  ;  and  they 
are  as  marvellous  to  us  as  they  were  to  the  Athenians, 
since  they  are  exponents  of  the  learning  as  well  as 
of  the  consecrated  sentiments  of  the  heroic  ages. 
We  find  in  them  no  pomp  of  words,  no  far-fetched 
thoughts,  no  theatrical  turgidity,  no  ambitious  specu- 
lations, no  indefinite  longings ;  but  we  see  the  man- 
ners and  customs  of  the  primitive  nations,  the  sights 
and  wonders  of  the  external  world,  the  marvellously 
interesting  traits  of  human  nature  as  it  was  and  is ; 
and  with  these  we  have  lessons  of  moral  wisdom, — 
all  recorded  with  singular  simplicity  yet  astonishing 
artistic  skill.  We  find  in  the  Homeric  narrative  accu- 
racy, delicacy,  naturalness,  with  grandeur,  sentiment, 
and  beauty,  such  as  Phidias  represented  in  his  statues 
of  Zeus.  No  poems  have  ever  been  more  popular,  and 
none  have  extorted  greater  admiration  from  critics. 
Like  Shakspeare,  Homer  is  a  kind  of  Bible  to  both 
the  learned  and  unlearned  among  all  peoples  and  ages, 
—  one  of  the  prodigies  of  the  world.  His  poems  form 
the  basis  of  Greek  literature,  and  are  the  best  under- 
stood and  the  most  widely  popular  of  all  Grecian 
compositions.  The  unconscious  simplicity  of  the  Ho- 
meric narrative,  its  high  moral  tone,  its  vivid  pictures, 
its  graphic  details,  and  its  religious  spirit  create  an  en- 
thusiasm such  as  few  works  of  genius  can  claim.  More- 
over it  presents  a  painting  of  society,  with  its  simplicity 


From  the  bust  in  the  Xational  Museum,  Xaplet 

HOMER 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN   CLASSICS.      323 

and  ferocity,  its  good  and  evil  passions,  its  tenderness 
and  its  fierceness,  such  as  no  other  poem  affords. 
Its  influence  on. the  popular  mythology  of  the  Greeks 
has  been  already  alluded  to.  If  Homer  did  not  create 
the  Grecian  theogony,  he  gave  form  and  fascination 
to  it.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  speak  of  any  other  Gre- 
cian epic,  when  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  attest 
the  perfection  which  was  attained  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  before  Hesiod  was  born.  Grote  thinks 
that  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  were  produced  at 
some  period  between  850  b.  c.  and  776  b.  c. 

In  lyrical  poetry  the  Greeks  were  no  less  remark- 
able;  indeed  they  attained  to  what  may  be  called 
absolute  perfection,  owing  to  the  intimate  connection 
between  poetry  and  music,  and  the  wonderful  elasticity 
and  adaptiveness  of  their  language.  Who  has  sur- 
passed Pindar  in  artistic  skill?  His  triumphal  odes 
are  pseans,  in  which  piety  breaks  out  in  expressions  of 
the  deepest  awe  and  the  most  elevated  sentiments  of 
moral  wisdom.  They  alone  of  all  his  writings  have 
descended  to  us,  but  these,  made  up  as  they  are  of 
odic  fragments,  songs,  dirges,  and  panegyrics,  show 
the  great  excellence  to  which  he  attained.  He  was 
so  celebrated  that  he  was  employed  by  the  different 
States  and  princes  of  Greece  to  compose  choral  songs 
for  special  occasions,  especially  for  the  public  games. 
Although  a  Theban,  he  was  held  in  the  highest  esti- 


324  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

mation  by  the  Athenians,  and  was  courted  by  kings 
and  princes.  Born  in  Thebes  522  b,  c,  he  died  prob- 
ably in  his  eightieth  year,  being  contemporary  with 
^schylus  and  the  battle  of  Marathon.  We  possess 
also  fragments  of  Sappho,  Simonides,  Anacreon,  and 
others,  enough  to  show  that  could  the  lyrical  poetry 
of  Greece  be  recovered,  we  should  probably  possess 
the  richest  collection  that  the  world  has  produced. 

Greek  dramatic  poetry  was  still  more  varied  and  re- 
markable. Even  the  great  masterpieces  of  Sophocles 
and  Euripides  now  extant  were  regarded  by  their  con- 
temporaries as  inferior  to  many  other  Greek  tragedies 
utterly  unknown  to  us.  The  great  creator  of  the 
Greek  drama  was  ^Eschylus,  born  at  Eleusis  525  B.  c. 
It  was  not  till  the  age  of  forty-one  that  he  gained 
his  first  prize.  Sixteen  years  afterward,  defeated  by 
Sophocles,  he  quitted  Athens  in  disgust  and  went  to 
the  court  of  Hiero,  king  of  Syracuse.  But  he  was 
always  held,  even  at  Athens,  in  the  highest  honor, 
and  his  pieces  were  frequently  reproduced  upon  the 
stage.  It  was  not  so  much  the  object  of  .^schylus 
to  amuse  an  audience  as  to  instruct  and  elevate  it. 
He  combined  religious  feeling  with  lofty  moral  sen- 
timent, and  had  unrivalled  power  over  the  realm 
of  astonishment  and  terror.  "  At  his  summons," 
says  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "  the  mysterious  and  tremen- 
dous volume   of  destiny,   in   which   is   inscribed   the 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.        325 

doom  of  gods  and  men,  seemed  to  display  its  leaves 
of  iron  before  the  appalled  spectators ;  the  more  than 
mortal  voices  of  Deities,  Titans,  and  departed  heroes 
were  heard  in  awful  conference ;  heaven  bowed,  and  its 
divinities  descended ;  earth  yawned,  and  gave  up  the 
pale  spectres  of  the  dead  and  yet  more  undefined  and 
ghastly  forms  of  those  infernal  deities  who  struck 
horror  into  the  gods  themselves."  His  imagination 
dwells  in  the  loftiest  regions  of  the  old  mythology  of 
Greece ;  his  tone  is  always  pure  and  moral,  though 
stern  and  harsh ;  he  appeals  to  the  most  violent  pas- 
sions, and  is  full  of  the  boldest  metaphors.  In  sub- 
limity ^schylus  has  never  been  surpassed.  He  was 
in  poetry  what  Phidias  and  Michael  Angelo  were  in 
art.  The  critics  say  that  his  sublimity  of  diction  is 
sometimes  carried  to  an  extreme,  so  that  his  language 
becomes  inflated.  His  characters,  like  his  sentiments, 
were  sublime,  —  they  were  gods  and  heroes  of  colossal 
magnitude.  His  religious  views  were  Homeric,  and  he 
sought  to  animate  his  countrymen  to  deeds  of  glory, 
as  it  became  one  of  the  generals  who  fought  at  Mara- 
thon to  do.  He  was  an  unconscious  genius,  and 
worked  like  Homer  without  a  knowledge  of  artistic 
laws.  He  was  proud  and  impatient,  and  his  poetry 
was  religious  rather  than  moral.  He  wrote  seventy 
plays,  of  which  only  seven  are  extant ;  but  these  are 
immortal,  among  the    greatest    creations    of    human 


326  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

genius,  like   the  dramas  of   Shakspeare.      He  died  in 
Sicily,  in  the  sixty-ninth  year  of  his  age. 

The  fame  of  Sophocles  is  scarcely  less  than  that  of 
^schylus.  He  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age  when 
he  publicly  appeared  as  a  poet.  He  was  bom  in  Co- 
lonus,  in  the  suburbs  of  Athens,  495  B.  c,  and  was 
the  contemporary  of  Herodotus,  of  Pericles,  of  Pindar, 
of  Phidias,  of  Socrates,  of  Cimon,  of  Euripides,  —  the 
era  of  great  men,  the  period  of  the  Peloponnesian  War, 
when  everything  that  was  elegant  and  intellectual 
culminated  at  Athens.  Sophocles  had  every  element 
of  character  and  person  to  fascinate  the  Greeks, — 
beauty  of  face,  symmetry  of  form,  skill  in  gymnas- 
tics, calmness  and  dignity  of  manner,  a  cheerful  and 
amiable  temper,  a  ready  wit,  a  meditative  piety,  a 
spontaneity  of  genius,  an  affectionate  admiration  for 
talent,  and  patriotic  devotion  to  his  country.  His 
tragedies,  by  the  universal  consent  of  the  best  critics, 
are  the  perfection  of  the  Greek  drama ;  and  they 
moreover  maintain  that  he  has  no  rival,  ^schylus 
and  Shakspeare  alone  excepted,  in  the  whole  realm 
of  dramatic  poetry.  It  was  the  peculiarity  of  Sopho- 
cles to  excite  emotions  of  sorrow  and  compassion. 
He  loved  to  paint  forlorn  heroes.  He  was  human  in 
all  his  sympathies,  perhaps  not  so  religious  as  ^schy- 
lus,  but  as  severely  ethical ;  not  so  sublime,  but  more 
perfect  in  art.     His  sufferers   are  not  the  victims  of 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN   CLASSICS.      327 

an  inexorable  destiny,  but  of  their  own  follies.  Nor 
does  he  even  excite  emotion  apart  from  a  moral  end. 
He  lived  to  be  ninety  years  old,  and  produced  the 
most  beautiful  of  his  tragedies  in  his  eightieth  year, 
the  "  (Edipus  at  Colonus."  Sophocles  wrote  the  as- 
tonishing number  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  plays, 
and  carried  off  the  first  prize  twenty-four  times.  His 
"Antigone"  was  written  when  he  was  forty-five,  and 
when  Euripides  had  already  gained  a  prize.  Only 
seven  of  his  tragedies  have  survived,  but  these  are 
priceless  treasures. 

Euripides,  the  last  of  the  great  triumvirate  of  the 
Greek  tragic  poets,  was  born  at  Athens,  485  B.  c.  He 
had  not  the  sublimity  of  ^schylus,  nor  the  touching 
pathos  of  Sophocles,  nor  the  stern  simplicity  of  either, 
but  in  seductive  beauty  and  successful  appeal  to  pas- 
sion was  superior  to  both.  In  his  tragedies  the  pas- 
sion of  love  predominates,  but  it  does  not  breathe  the 
purity  of  sentiment  which  marked  the  tragedies  of 
^schylus  and  Sophocles;  it  approaches  rather  to  the 
tone  of  the  modern  drama.  He  paints  the  weakness 
and  corruptions  of  society,  and  brings  his  subjects  to 
the  level  of  common  life.  He  was  the  pet  of  the 
Sophists,  and  was  pantheistic  in  his  views.  He  does 
not  attempt  to  show  ideal  excellence,  and  his  char- 
acters represent  men  not  as  they  ought  to  be,  but 
as    they   are,  especially   in   corrupt  states   of  society. 


328  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

Euripides  wrote  ninety-five  plays,  of  which  eighteen 
are  extant.  Whatever  objection  may  be  urged  to  his 
dramas  on  the  score  of  morality,  nobody  can  question 
their  transcendent  art  or  their  great  originality. 

With  the  exception  of  Shakspeare,  all  succeeding 
dramatists  have  copied  the  three  great  Greek  tragic 
poets  whom  we  have  just  named,  —  especially  Racine, 
who  took  Sophocles  for  his  model,  —  even  as  the  great 
epic  poets  of  all  ages  have  been  indebted  to  Homer. 

The  Greeks  were  no  less  distinguished  for  comedy 
than  for  tragedy.  Both  tragedy  and  comedy  sprang 
from  feasts  in  honor  of  Bacchus;  and  as  the  jests 
and  frolics  were  found  misplaced  when  introduced 
into  grave  scenes,  a  separate  province  of  the  drama 
was  formed,  and  comedy  arose.  At  first  it  did  not 
derogate  from  the  religious  purposes  which  were  at 
the  foundation  of  the  Greek  drama ;  it  turned  upon 
parodies  in  which  the  adventures  of  the  gods  were 
introduced  by  way  of  sport,  — as  in  describing  the  ap- 
petite of  Hercules  or  the  cowardice  of  Bacchus.  The 
comic  authors  entertained  spectators  by  fantastic  and 
gross  displays,  by  the  exhibition  of  bufi'oonery  and 
pantomime.  But  the  taste  of  the  Athenians  was  too 
severe  to  relish  such  entertainments,  and  comedy  passed 
into  ridicule  of  public  men  and  measures  and  the 
fashions  of  the  day.  The  people  loved  to  see  their 
great  men  brought  down  to  their  own  level.     Comedy, 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       329 

however,  did  not  flourish  until  the  morals  of  society 
were  degenerated,  and  ridicule  had  become  the  most 
effective  weapon  wherewith  to  assail  prevailing  follies. 
In  modern  times,  comedy  reached  its  culminating  point 
when  society  was  both  the  most  corrupt  and  the  most 
intellectual,  —  as  in  France,  when  Moli^re  pointed  his 
envenomed  shafts  against  popular  vices.  In  Greece  it 
flourished  in  the  age  of  Socrates  and  the  Sophists,  when 
there  was  great  bitterness  in  pohtical  parties  and  an 
irrepressible  desire  for  novelties.  Comedy  first  made 
itself  felt  as  a  great  power  in  Cratinus,  who  espoused 
the  side  of  Cimon  against  Pericles  with  great  bitterness 
and  vehemence. 

Many  were  the  comic  writers  of  that  age  of 
wickedness  and  genius,  but  all  yielded  precedence 
to  Aristophanes,  of  whose  writings  only  his  plays 
have  reached  us.  Never  were  libels  on  persons  of 
authority  and  influence  uttered  with  such  terrible 
license.  He  attacked  the  gods,  the  politicians,  the 
philosophers,  and  the  poets  of  Athens ;  even  private 
citizens  did  not  escape  from  his  shafts,  and  women 
were  the  subjects  of  his  irony.  Socrates  was  made 
the  butt  of  his  ridicule  when  most  revered,  Cleon 
in  the  height  of  his  power,  and  Euripides  when  he 
had  gained  the  highest  prizes.  Aristophanes  has  fur- 
nished jests  for  Rabelais,  hints  to  Swift,  and  humor 
for  Moliere.     In  satire,  in  derision,  in  invective,  and 


330  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

bitter  scorn  he  has  never  been  surpassed.  No  mod- 
em capital  would  tolerate  such  unbounded  license ; 
yet  no  plays  in  their  day  were  ever  more  popular,  or 
more  fully  exposed  follies  which  could  not  otherwise 
be  reached.  Aristophanes  is  called  the  Father  of 
Comedy,  and  his  comedies  are  of  great  historical  impor- 
tance, although  his  descriptions  are  doubtless  carica- 
tures. He  was  patriotic  in  his  intentions,  even  setting 
up  as  a  reformer.  His  peculiar  genius  shines  out 
in  his  "  Clouds,"  the  greatest  of  his  pieces,  in  which 
he  attacks  the  Sophists.  He  wrote  fifty-four  plays. 
He  was  born   444  B.  c,  and  died  380  b.  c. 

Thus  it  would  appear  that  in  the  three  great  depart- 
ments of  poetry,  —  the  epic,  the  lyric,  and  the  dra- 
matic, —  the  old  Greeks  were  great  masters,  and  have 
been  the  teachers  of  all  subsequent  nations  and  ages. 

The  Eomans  in  these  departments  were  not  the 
equals  of  the  Greeks,  but  they  were  very  successful 
copyists,  and  will  bear  comparison  with  modem  na- 
tions. If  the  Eomans  did  not  produce  a  Homer, 
they  can  boast  of  a  Virgil;  if  they  had  no  Pindar, 
they  furnished  a  Horace;  and  in  satire  they  tran- 
scended the  Greeks. 

The  Eomans  produced  no  poetry  worthy  of  notice 
until  the  Greek  language  and  literature  were  introduced 
among  them.  It  was  not  till  the  fall  of  Tarentum  that 
we  read  of  a  Eoman  poet.     Livius  Andronicus,  a  Greek 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      331 


slave,  240  B.C., rudely  translated  the  Odyssey  into  Latin, 
and  was  the  author  of  various  plays,  all  of  which 
have  perished,  and  none  of  which,  according  to  Cicero, 
were  worth  a  second  perusal.  Still,  Andronicus  was 
the  first  to  substitute  the  Greek  drama  for  the  old 
lyrical  stage  poetry.  One  year  after  the  first  Punic 
War,  he  exhibited  the  first  Roman  play.  As  the  crea- 
tor of  the  drama  he  deserves  historical  notice,  though 
he  has  no  claim  to  originality,  but,  like  a  schoolmaster 
as  he  was,  pedantically  labored  to  imitate  the  culture 
of  the  Greeks.  His  plays  formed  the  commencement 
of  Roman  translation-literature,  and  naturalized  the 
Greek  metres  in  Latium,  even  though  they  were  curi- 
osities rather  than  works  of  art. 

Nsevius,  235  b.  c,  produced  a  play  at  Rome,  and 
wrote  both  epic  and  dramatic  poetry,  but  so  little 
has  survived  that  no  judgment  can  be  formed  of  his 
merits.  He  was  banished  for  his  invectives  against 
the  aristocracy,  who  did  not  relish  severity  of  comedy. 
Mommsen  regards  Nsevius  as  the  first  of  the  Ro- 
mans who  deserves  to  be  ranked  among  the  poets.  His 
language  was  free  from  stiffness  and  affectation,  and 
his  verses  had  a  graceful  flow.  In  metres  he  closely 
adhered  to  Andronicus. 

Plautus  was  perhaps  the  first  great  dramatic  poet 
whom  the  Romans  produced,  and  his  comedies  are  still 
admired  by  critics  as  both  original  and  fresh.     He  was 
VOL.  I.— 20 


332  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

born  in  Umbria,  257  B.  c,  and  was  contemporaneous 
with  Publius  and  Cneius  Scipio.  He  died  184  B.  c. 
The  first  development  of  Roman  genius  in  the  field 
of  poetry  seems  to  have  been  the  dramatic,  in  which 
still  the  Greek  authors  were  copied.  Plautus  might 
be  mistaken  for  a  Greek,  were  it  not  for  the  painting 
of  Roman  manners,  for  his  garb  is  essentially  Greek. 
Plautus  wrote  one  hundred  and  thirty  plays,  not  always 
for  the  stage,  but  for  the  reading  public.  He  lived 
about  the  time  of  the  second  Punic  War,  before  the 
theatre  was  fairly  established  at  Rome.  His  characters, 
although  founded  on  Greek  models,  act,  speak,  and  joke 
like  Romans.  He  enjoyed  great  popularity  down  to 
the  latest  times  of  the  empire,  while  the  purity  of  his 
language,  as  well  as  the  felicity  of  his  wit,  was  cele- 
brated by  the  ancient  critics.  Cicero  places  his  wit  on 
a  par  with  the  old  Attic  comedy ;  while  Jerome  spent 
much  time  in  reading  his  comedies,  even  though  they 
afterward  cost  him  tears  of  bitter  regret.  Modern  dra- 
matists owe  much  to  Plautus.  Moli^re  has  imitated 
him  in  his  "  A  vara/'  and  Shakspeare  in  his  "  Comedy 
of  Errors."  Lessing  pronounces  the  "  Captivi "  to  be 
the  finest  comedy  ever  brought  upon  the  stage;  he 
translated  this  play  into  German,  and  it  has  also  been 
admirably  translated  into  English.  The  great  excel- 
lence of  Plautus  was  the  masterly  handling  of  lan- 
guage, and  the  adjusting  the  parts  for  dramatic  effect 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       333 

His  humor,  broad  and  fresh,  produced  irresistible  comic 
effects.  No  one  ever  surpassed  him  in  his  vocabulary 
of  nicknames  and  his  happy  jokes.  Hence  he  main- 
tained his  popularity  in  spite  of  his  vulgarity. 

Terence  shares  with  Plautus  the  throne  of  Eoman 
comedy.  He  was  a  Carthaginian  slave,  born  185  B.  c, 
but  was  educated  by  a  wealthy  Eoman  into  whose 
hands  he  fell,  and  ever  after  associated  with  the 
best  society  and  travelled  extensively  in  Greece.  He 
was  greatly  inferior  to  Plautus  in  originality,  and  has 
not  exerted  a  like  lasting  influence ;  but  he  wrote  com- 
edies characterized  by  great  purity  of  diction,  which 
have  been  translated  into  all  modern  languages.  Ter- 
ence, whom  Mommsen  regards  as  the  most  polished, 
elegant,  and  chaste  of  all  the  poets  of  the  newer 
comedy,  closely  copied  the  Greek  Menander.  Unlike 
I*lautus,  he  drew  his  characters  from  good  society,  and 
his  comedies,  if  not  moral,  were  decent.  Plautus  wrote 
for  the  multitude,  Terence  for  the  few;  Plautus  de- 
lighted in  noisy  dialogue  and  slang  expressions ;  Ter- 
ence confined  himself  to  quiet  conversation  and  elegant 
expressions,  for  which  he  was  admired  by  Cicero  and 
Quintilian  and  other  great  critics.  He  aspired  to  the 
approval  of  the  cultivated,  rather  than  the  applause 
of  the  vulgar ;  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  his 
comedies  supplanted  the  more  original  productions  of 
Plautus   in   the   later  years  of  the  republic,  showing 


334  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

that  the  literature  of  the  aristocracy  was  more  prized 
than  that  of  the  people,  even  in  a  degenerate  age. 

The  "  Thyestes  "  of  Varius  was  regarded  in  its  day  as 
equal  to  Greek  tragedies.  Ennius  composed  tragedies 
in  a  vigorous  style,  and  was  regarded  by  the  Eomans 
as  the  parent  of  their  literature,  although  most  of  his 
works  have  perished.  Virgil  borrowed  many  of  his 
thoughts,  and  was  regarded  as  the  prince  of  Eoman 
song  in  the  time  of  Cicero.  The  Latin  language  is 
greatly  indebted  to  him.  Pacuvius  imitated  ^schylus 
in  the  loftiness  of  his  style.  From  the  times  before 
the  Augustan  age  no  tragic  production  has  reached  us, 
although  Quintilian  speaks  highly  of  Accius,  especially 
of  the  vigor  of  his  style ;  but  he  merely  imitated  the 
Greeks.  The  only  tragedy  of  the  Eomans  which  has 
reached  us  was  written  by  Seneca  the  philosopher. 

In  epic  poetry  the  Eomans  accomplished  more, 
though  even  here  they  are  still  inferior  to  the  Greeks. 
The  ^neid  of  Virgil  has  certainly  survived  the  mate- 
rial glories  of  Eome.  It  may  not  have  come  up  to  the 
exalted  ideal  of  its  author ;  it  may  be  defaced  by  po- 
litical flatteries ;  it  may  not  have  the  force  and  origi- 
nality of  the  Iliad,  —  but  it  is  superior  in  art,  and 
delineates  the  passion  of  love  with  more  delicacy  than 
can  be  found  in  any  Greek  author.  In  soundness  of 
judgment,  in  tenderness  of  feehng,  in  chastened  fancy, 
in  picturesque  description,  in  delineation  of  character, 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      335 

in  matchless  beauty  of  diction,  and  in  splendor  of  ver- 
sification, it  has  never  been  surpassed  by  any  poem  in 
any  language,  and  proudly  takes  its  place  among  the 
imperishable  works  of  genius.  Henry  Thompson,  in 
his  '*  History  of  Eoman  Literature,"  says :  — 

"Availing  himself  of  the  pride  and  superstition  of  the 
Eoman  people,  the  poet  traces  the  origin  and  establishment 
of  the  '  Eternal  City '  to  those  heroes  and  actions  which  had 
enough  in  them  of  what  was  human  and  ordinary  to  excite 
the  sympathies  of  his  countrymen,  intermingled  with  per- 
sons and  circumstances  of  an  extraordinary  and  superhuman 
character  to  awaken  their  admiration  and  awe.  No  subject 
could  have  been  more  happily  chosen.  It  has  been  admired 
also  for  its  perfect  unity  of  action  ;  for  while  the  episodes 
command  the  richest  variety  of  description,  they  are  always 
subordinate  to  the  main  object  of  the  poem,  which  is  to 
impress  the  divine  authority  under  which  iEneas  first  settled 
in  Italy.  The  wrath  of  Juno,  upon  which  the  whole  fate  of 
^neas  seems  to  turn,  is  at  once  that  of  a  woman  and  a  god- 
dess ;  the  passion  of  Dido  and  her  general  character  bring 
us  nearer  to  the  present  world,  —  but  the  poet  is  continually 
introducing  higher  and  more  effectual  influences,  until,  by 
the  intervention  of  gods  and  men,  the  Trojan  name  is  to  be 
continued  in  the  Roman,  and  thus  heaven  and  earth  are 
appeased." 

Probably  no  one  work  of  man  has  had  such  a  wide 
and  profound  influence  as  this  poem  of  Virgil, — a  text- 


336  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

book  in  all  schools  since  the  revival  of  learning,  the 
model  of  the  Carlovingian  poets,  the  guide  of  Dante, 
the  oracle  of  Tasso.  Virgil  was  born  seventy  years 
before  Christ,  and  was  seven  years  older  than  Augustus. 
His  parentage  was  humble,  but  his  facilities  of  educa- 
tion were  great.  He  was  a  most  fortunate  man,  enjoy- 
ing the  friendship  of  Augustus  and  Maecenas,  fame  in 
his  own  lifetime,  leisure  to  prosecute  his  studies,  and 
ample  rewards  for  his  labors.  He  died  at  Brundusium 
at  the  age  of  fifty. 

In  lyrical  poetry,  the  Romans  can  boast  of  one  of 
the  greatest  masters  of  any  age  or  nation.  The  Odes 
of  Horace  have  never  been  transcended,  and  will  prob- 
ably remain  through  all  ages  the  delight  of  scholars. 
They  may  not  have  the  deep  religious  sentiment  and 
unity  of  imagination  and  passion  which  belong  to 
the  Greek  lyrical  poets,  but  as  works  of  art,  of  exqui- 
site felicity  of  expression,  of  agreeable  images,  they  ar6 
unrivalled.  Even  in  the  time  of  Juvenal  his  poems 
were  the  common  school-books  of  Roman  youth.  Hor- 
ace, bom  65  B.  c,  like  Virgil  was  also  a  favored  man, 
enjoying  the  friendship  of  the  great,  and  possessing 
ease,  fame,  and  fortune;  but  his  longings  for  retire- 
ment and  his  disgust  at  the  frivolities  around  him 
are  a  sad  commentary  on  satisfied  desires.  His  Odes 
composed  but  a  small  part  of  his  writings.  His  Epis- 
tles are  the  most  perfect  of  his  productions,  and  rank 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       337 


with  the  "  Georgics "  of  Virgil  and  the  "  Satires "  of 
Juvenal  as  the  most  perfect  form  of  Eoman  verse. 
His  satires  are  also  admirable,  but  without  the  fierce 
vehemence  and  lofty  indignation  that  characterized 
those  of  Juvenal.  It  is  the  folly  rather  than  the 
wickedness  of  vice  which  Horace  describes  with  such 
playful  skill  and  such  keenness  of  observation.  He 
was  the  first  to  mould  the  Latin  tongue  to  the  Greek 
lyric  measures.  Quintilian's  criticism  is  indorsed  by 
all  scholars,  —  Lyricorum  Horatius  fere  solus  legi  dig- 
nus,  in  verbis  felicissime  audax.  No  poetry  was  ever 
more  severely  elaborated  than  that  of  Horace,  and  the 
melody  of  the  language  imparts  to  it  a  peculiar  fascina- 
tion. If  inferior  to  Pindar  in  passion  and  loftiness,  it 
glows  with  a  more  genial  humanity  and  with  purer 
wit.  It  cannot  be  enjoyed  fully  except  by  those  versed 
in  the  experiences  of  life,  who  perceive  in  it  a  calm 
wisdom,  a  penetrating  sagacity,  a  sober  enthusiasm, 
and  a  refined  taste,  which  are  unusual  even  among  the 
masters  of  human  thought. 

It  is  the  fashion  to  depreciate  the  original  merits  of 
this  poet,  as  well  as  those  of  Virgil,  Plautus,  and  Ter- 
ence, because  they  derived  so  much  assistance  from  the 
Greeks.  But  the  Greeks  also  borrowed  from  one  an- 
other. Pure  originality  is  impossible.  It  is  the  mission 
of  art  to  add  to  its  stores,  without  hoping  to  monopo- 
lize  the   whole  realm.      Even    Shakspeare,  the  most 


338  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

original  of  modern  poets,  was  vastly  indebted  to  thoss 
who  went  before  him,  and  he  has  not  escaped  the 
hypercriticism  of  minute  observers. 

In  this  mention  of  lyrical  poetry  I  have  not  spoken 
of  Catullus,  unrivalled  in  tender  lyric,  the  greatest  poet 
before  the  Augustan  era.  He  was  born  87  b,  c,  and 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  the  most  celebrated  charac- 
ters. One  hundred  and  sixteen  of  his  poems  have  come 
down  to  us,  most  of  which  are  short,  and  many  of  them 
defiled  by  great  coarseness  and  sensuality.  Critics  say, 
however,  that  whatever  he  touched  he  adorned;  that 
his  vigorous  simplicity,  pungent  wit,  startling  invective, 
and  felicity  of  expression  make  him  one  of  the  great 
poets  of  the  Latin  language. 

In  didactic  poetry  Lucretius  was  pre-eminent,  and 
is  regarded  by  Schlegel  as  the  first  of  Eoman  poets  in 
native  genius.  He  was  born  95  B.  c,  and  died  at  the 
age  of  forty-two  by  his  own  hand.  His  principal  poem 
"  De  Eerum  Natura  "  is  a  delineation  of  the  Epicurean 
philosophy,  and  treats  of  all  the  great  subjects  of 
thought  with  which  his  age  was  conversant.  Some- 
what resembling  Pope's  "  Essay  on  Man  "  in  style  and 
subject,  it  is  immeasurably  superior  in  poetical  genius. 
It  is  a  lengthened  disquisition,  in  seven  thousand  four 
hundred  lines,  upon  the  great  phenomena  of  the  out- 
ward world.  As  a  painter  and  worshipper  of  Nature. 
Lucretius  was  superior  to  all  the  poets  of  antiquity. 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       339 

His  skill  in  presenting  abstruse  speculations  is  mar- 
vellous, and  his  outbursts  of  poetic  genius  are  matchless 
in  power  and  beauty.  Into  all  subjects  he  casts  a  fear- 
less eye,  and  writes  with  sustained  enthusiasm.  But 
he  was  not  fully  appreciated  by  his  countrymen,  al- 
though no  other  poet  has  so  fully  brought  out  the 
power  of  the  Latin  language.  Professor  Ramsay,  while 
alluding  to  the  melancholy  tenderness  of  TibuUus,  the 
exquisite  ingenuity  of  Ovid,  the  inimitable  fehcity  and 
taste  of  Horace,  the  gentleness  and  splendor  of  Virgil, 
and  the  vehement  declamation  of  Juvenal,  thinks  that 
had  the  verse  of  Lucretius  perished  we  should  never 
have  known  that  the  Latin  could  give  utterance  to 
the  grandest  conceptions,  with  all  that  self-sustained 
majesty  and  harmonious  swell  in  which  the  Grecian 
muse  rolls  forth  her  loftiest  outpourings.  The  eulo- 
gium  of  Ovid  is  — 

"  Carmina  sublimis  tunc  sunt  peritura  Lucrett, 
Exitio  terras  quum  dabit  una  dies." 

Elegiac  poetry  has  an  honorable  place  in  Eoman 
literature.  To  this  school  belongs  Ovid,  born  43  B.  c, 
died  18  A.  D.,  whose  "Tristia,"  a  doleful  description  of 
the  evils  of  exile,  were  much  admired  by  the  Romans. 
His  most  famous  work  was  his  "Metamorphoses," 
mythologic  legends  involving  transformations,— a  most 
poetical  and  imaginative  production.  He,  with  that 
self-conscious  genius  common  to  poets,  declares  that 


340  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

his  poem  would  be  proof  against  sword,  fire,  thunder, 
and  time,  —  a  prediction,  says  Bayle,  which  has  not 
yet  proved  false.  Niebuhr  thinks  that  Ovid  next  to 
Catullus  was  the  most  poetical  of  his  countrymen. 
Milton  thinks  he  might  have  surpassed  Virgil,  had  he 
attempted  epic  poetry.  He  was  nearest  to  the  roman- 
tic school  of  all  the  classical  authors ;  and  Chaucer, 
Ariosto,  and  Spenser  owe  to  him  great  obligations. 
Like  Pope,  his  verses  flowed  spontaneously.  His  "Tris- 
tia  "  were  more  highly  praised  than  his  "  Amores  "  or 
his  "  Metamorphoses,"  a  fact  which  shows  that  contem- 
poraries are  not  always  the  best  judges  of  real  merit. 
His  poems,  great  as  was  their  genius,  are  deficient  in 
the  severe  taste  which  marked  the  Greeks,  and  are 
immoral  in  their  tendency.  He  had  great  advantages, 
but  was  banished  by  Augustus  for  his  description  of 
licentious  love.  Nor  did  he  support  exile  with  dignity ; 
he  languished  like  Cicero  when  doomed  to  a  similar 
fate,  and  died  of  a  broken  heart.  But  few  intellectual 
men  have  ever  been  able  to  live  at  a  distance  from  the 
scene  of  their  glories,  and  without  the  stimulus  of  high 
society.  Chrysostom  is  one  of  the  few  exceptions. 
Ovid,  as  an  immoral  writer,  was  justly  punished. 

Tibullus,  also  a  famous  elegiac  poet,  was  bom  the 
same  year  as  Ovid,  and  was  the  friend  of  the  poet 
Horace.  He  lived  in  retirement,  and  was  both  gentle 
and  amiable.     At  his  beautiful  country-seat  he  soothed 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      341 


his  soul  with  the  charms  of  literature  and  the  simple 
pleasures  of  the  country.  Niebuhr  pronounces  the  ele- 
gies of  Tibullus  to  be  doleful,  but  Merivale  thinks  that 
"  the  tone  of  tender  melancholy  in  which  he  sung  his 
unprosperous  loves  had  a  deeper  and  purer  source  than 
the  caprices  of  three  inconstant  paramours.  .  .  .  His 
spirit  is  eminently  religious,  though  it  bids  him  fold 
his  hands  in  resignation  rather  than  open  them  in  hope. 
He  alone  of  all  the  great  poets  of  his  day  remained 
undazzled  by  the  glitter  of  the  Caesarian  usurpation, 
and  pined  away  in  unavailing  despondency  while 
beholding  the  subjugation  of  his  country." 

Propertius,  the  contemporary  of  Tibullus,  born  51 
B.  c,  was  on  the  contrary  the  most  eager  of  all  the 
flatterers  of  Augustus,  —  a  man  of  wit  and  pleasure, 
whose  object  of  idolatry  was  Cynthia,  a  poetess  and 
a  courtesan.  He  was  an  imitator  of  the  Greeks,  but 
had  a  great  contemporary  fame.  He  showed  much 
warmth  of  passion,  but  never  soared  into  the  sublime 
heights  of  poetry,  like  his  rival. 

Such  were  among  the  great  elegiac  poets  of  Eome, 
who  were  generally  devoted  to  the  delineation  of  the 
passion  of  love.  The  older  English  poets  resembled 
them  in  this  respect,  but  none  of  them  have  risen  to 
such  lofty  heights  as  the  later  ones,  —  for  instance, 
Wordsworth  and  Tennyson.  It  is  in  lyric  poetry 
that  the  moderns  have  chiefly  excelled  the  ancients. 


342  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

in  variety,  in  elevation  of  sentiment,  and  in  imagina- 
tion. The  grandeur  and  originality  of  the  ancients 
were  displayed  rather  in  epic  and  dramatic  poetry. 

In  satire  the  Romans  transcended  both  the  Greeks 
and  the  moderns  Satire  arose  with  Lucilius,  148  B.  c, 
in  the  time  of  Marius,  an  age  when  freedom  of  speech 
was  tolerated.  Horace  was  the  first  to  gain  immor- 
tality in  this  department.  Next  Persius  comes,  born 
34  A.  D.,  the  friend  of  Lucian  and  Seneca  in  the  time 
of  Nero,  who  painted  the  vices  of  his  age  as  it  was 
passing  to  that  degradation  which  marked  the  reign  of 
Domitian,  when  Juvenal  appeared.  The  latter,  dis- 
daining fear,  boldly  set  forth  the  abominations  of  the 
times,  and  struck  without  distinction  all  who  departed 
from  duty  and  conscience.  There  is  nothing  in  any 
language  which  equals  the  fire,  the  intensity,  and  the 
bitterness  of  Juvenal,  not  even  the  invectives  of  Swift 
and  Pope.  But  he  flourished  during  the  decline  of  lit- 
erature, and  had  neither  the  taste  nor  the  elegance  of 
the  Augustan  writers.  He  was  bom  60  A.  d.,  the  son 
of  a  freedman,  and  was  the  contemporary  of  Martial. 
He  was  banished  by  Domitian  on  account  of  a  lampoon 
against  a  favorite  dancer,  but  under  the  reign  of  Nerva 
he  returned  to  Rome,  and  the  imperial  tyranny  was  the 
subject  of  his  bitterest  denunciation  next  to  the  degra- 
dation of  public  morals.  His  great  rival  in  satire  was 
Horace,  who  laughed  at  follies ;  but  Juvenal,  more  aus- 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       343 

tere,  exaggerated  and  denounced  them.  His  sarcasms 
on  women  have  never  been  equalled  in  severity,  and 
we  cannot  but  hope  that  they  were  unjust.  From  an 
historical  point  of  view,  as  a  delineation  of  the  man- 
ners of  his  age,  his  satires  are  priceless,  even  like  the 
epigrams  of  Martial.  This  uncompromising  poet,  not 
pliant  and  easy  like  Horace,  animadverted  like  an 
incorruptible  censor  on  the  vices  which  were  under- 
mining the  moral  health  and  preparing  the  way  for 
violence;  on  the  hypocrisy  of  philosophers  and  the 
cruelty  of  tyrants  ;  on  the  frivolity  of  women  and 
the  debauchery  of  men.  He  discoursed  on  the  vanity 
of  human  wishes  with  the  moral  wisdom  of  Dr.  John- 
son, and  urged  self-improvement  like  Socrates  and 
Epictetus. 

I  might  speak  of  other  celebrated  poets,  —  of  Lucan, 
of  Martial,  of  Petronius ;  but  I  only  wish  to  show  that 
the  great  poets  of  antiquity,  both  Greek  and  Eoman, 
have  never  been  surpassed  in  genius,  in  taste,  and  in 
art,  and  that  few  were  ever  more  honored  in  their 
lifetime  by  appreciating  admirers,  —  showing  the  ad- 
vanced state  of  civilization  which  was  reached  in 
those  classic  countries  in  everything  pertaining  to  the 
realm  of  thought  and  art. 

The  genius  of  the  ancients  was  displayed  in  prose 
composition  as  well  as  in  poetry,  although  perfection 


344  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

was  not  so  soon  attained.  The  poets  were  the  great 
creators  of  the  languages  of  antiquity.  It  was  not  un- 
til they  had  produced  their  immortal  works  that  the 
languages  were  sufficiently  softened  and  refined  to  ad- 
mit of  great  beauty  in  prose.  But  prose  requires  art 
as  well  as  poetry.  There  is  an  artistic  rhythm  in  the 
writings  of  the  classical  authors  —  like  those  of  Cicero, 
Herodotus,  and  Thucydides  —  as  marked  as  in  the 
beautiful  measure  of  Homer  and  Virgil.  Plato  did 
not  write  poetry,  but  his  prose  is  as  "  musical  as 
Apollo's  lyre."  Burke  and  Macaulay  are  as  great 
artists  in  style  as  Tennyson  himself.  And  it  is  sel- 
dom that  men,  either  in  ancient  or  modern  times. 
have  been  distinguished  for  both  kinds  of  composi- 
tion, although  Voltaire,  Schiller,  Milton,  Swift,  and 
Scott  are  among  the  exceptions.  Cicero,  the  greatest 
prose  writer  of  antiquity,  produced  in  poetry  only  a 
single  inferior  work,  which  was  laughed  at  by  his  con- 
temporaries. Bacon,  with  all  his  affluence  of  thought, 
vigor  of  imagination,  and  command  of  language,  could 
not  write  poetry  any  easier  than  Pope  could  write 
prose,  —  although  it  is  asserted  by  some  modem 
writers,  of  no  great  reputation,  that  Bacon  wrote 
Shakspeare's  plays. 

All  sorts  of  prose  compositions  were  carried  to  per- 
fection by  both  Greeks  and  Romans,  in  history,  in 
criticism,  in  philosophy,  in  oratory,  in  epistles. 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       345 


The  earliest  great  prose  writer  among  the  Greeks 
was  Herodotus,  484  B.C.,  from  which  we  may  infer 
that  History  was  the  first  form  of  prose  composition 
to  attain  development.  But  Herodotus  was  not  born 
until  ^schylus  had  gained  a  prize  for  tragedy,  nor 
for  more  than  two  hundred  years  after  Simonides  the 
lyric  poet  flourished,  and  probably  five  or  six  hun- 
dred years  after  Homer  sang  his  immortal  epics;  yet 
though  two  thousand  years  and  more  have  passed 
since  he  wrote,  the  style  of  this  great  "Father  of 
History  "  is  admired  by  every  critic,  while  his  history 
as  a  work  of  art  is  still  a  study  and  a  marvel.  It  is 
difficult  to  understand  why  no  work  in  prose  anterior 
to  Herodotus  is  worthy  of  note,  since  the  Greeks  had 
attained  a  high  civilization  two  hundred  years  before 
he  appeared,  and  the  language  had  reached  a  high 
point  of  development  under  Homer  for  more  than 
five  hundred  years.  The  History  of  Herodotus  was 
probably  written  in  the  decline  of  life,  when  his 
mind  was  enriched  with  great  attainments  in  all  the 
varied  learning  of  his  age,  and  when  he  had  conversed 
with  most  of  the  celebrated  men  of  the  various  coun- 
tries he  had  visited.  It  pertains  chiefly  to  the  wars  of 
the  Greeks  with  the  Persians ;  but  in  his  frequent 
episodes,  which  do  not  impair  the  unity  of  the  work, 
he  is  led  to  speak  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
Oriental  nations.     It  was  once  the  fashion  to  speak  of 


346  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

Herodotus  as  a  credulous  man,  who  embodied  the  most 
improbable  though  interesting  stories.  But  now  it  is 
believed  that  no  historian  was  ever  more  profound, 
conscientious,  and  careful ;  and  all  modem  investiga- 
tions confirm  his  sagacity  and  impartiality.  He  was 
one  of  the  most  accomplished  men  of  antiquity,  or 
of  any  age,  —  an  enlightened  and  curious  traveller,  a 
profound  thinker;  a  man  of  universal  knowledge, 
familiar  with  the  whole  range  of  literature,  art,  and 
science  in  his  day ;  acquainted  with  all  the  great 
men  of  Greece  and  at  the  courts  of  Asiatic  princes ; 
the  friend  of  Sophocles,  of  Pericles,  of  Thucydides,  of 
Aspasia,  of  Socrates,  of  Damon,  of  Zeno,  of  Phidias,  of 
Protagoras,  of  Euripides,  of  Polygnotus,  of  Anaxagoras, 
of  Xenophon,  of  Alcibiades,  of  Lysias,  of  Aristophanes, 
—  the  most  brilliant  constellation  of  men  of  genius 
who  were  ever  found  together  within  the  walls  of  a 
Grecian  city,  —  respected  and  admired  by  these  great 
lights,  all  of  whom  were  inferior  to  him  in  knowl- 
edge. Thus  was  he  fitted  for  his  task  by  travel,  by 
study,  and  by  intercourse  with  the  great,  to  say  nothing 
of  his  original  genius.  The  greatest  prose  work  which 
had  yet  appeared  in  Greece  was  produced  by  Herod- 
otus,—  a  prose  epic,  severe  in  taste,  perfect  in  unity, 
rich  in  moral  wisdom,  charming  in  style,  religious  in 
spirit,  grand  in  subject,  without  a  coarse  passage ; 
simple,  unaffected,  and  beautiful,  like  the  narratives 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       Ml 


of  the  Bible,  amusing  yet  instructive,  easy  to  under- 
stand, yet  extending  to  the  utmost  boundaries  of 
human  research,  —  a  model  for  all  subsequent  histo- 
rians. So  highly  was  this  historic  composition  valued 
by  the  Athenians  when  their  city  was  at  the  height  of 
its  splendor  that  they  decreed  to  its  author  ten  talents 
(about  twelve  thousand  dollars)  for  reciting  it.  He 
even  went  from  city  to  city,  a  sort  of  prose  rhapsodist, 
or  like  a  modern  lecturer,  reciting  his  history,  —  an 
honored  and  extraordinary  man,  a  sort  of  Humboldt, 
having  mastered  everything.  And  he  wrote,  not  for 
fame,  but  to  communicate  the  results  of  inquiries  made 
to  satisfy  his  craving  for  knowledge,  which  he  obtained 
by  personal  investigation  at  Dodona,  at  Delphi,  at 
Samos,  at  Athens,  at  Corinth,  at  Thebes,  at  Tyre;  he 
even  travelled  into  Egypt,  Scythia,  Asia  Minor,  Pales- 
tine, Babylonia,  Italy,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea.  His 
episode  on  Egypt  is  worth  more,  from  an  historical 
point  of  view,  than  all  things  combined  which  have 
descended  to  us  from  antiquity.  Herodotus  was  the 
first  to  give  dignity  to  history;  nor  in  truthfulness, 
candor,  and  impartiality  has  he  ever  been  surpassed. 
His  very  simplicity  of  style  is  a  proof  of  his  trans- 
cendent art,  even  as  it  is  the  evidence  of  his  severity 
of  taste.  The  translation  of  this  great  history  by 
Rawlinson,  with  notes,  is  invaluable. 

To  Thucydides,  as  an  historian,  the  modern  world 

VOL.  I. —  21 


348  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

also  assigns  a  proud  pre-eminence.  He  was  born 
471  B.  c,  and  lived  twenty  years  in  exile  on  account 
of  a  military  failure.  He  treated  only  of  a  short  period, 
during  the  Peloponnesian  War ;  but  the  various  facts 
connected  with  that  great  event  could  be  known  only 
by  the  most  minute  and  careful  inquiries.  He  devoted 
twenty-seven  years  to  the  composition  of  his  narrative, 
and  weighed  his  evidence  with  the  most  scrupulous 
care.  His  style  has  not  the  fascination  of  Herodotus, 
but  it  is  more  concise.  In  a  single  volume  Thucydides 
relates  what  could  scarcely  be  compressed  into  eight 
volumes  of  a  modern  history.  As  a  work  of  art,  of  its 
kind  it  is  unrivalled.  In  his  description  of  the  plague 
of  Athens  this  writer  is  as  minute  as  he  is  simple. 
He  abounds  with  rich  moral  reflections,  and  has  a  keen 
perception  of  human  character.  His  pictures  are  strik- 
ing and  tragic.  He  is  vigorous  and  intense,  and  every 
word  he  uses  has  a  meaning,  but  some  of  his  sentences 
are  not  always  easQy  understood.  One  of  the  greatest 
tributes  which  can  be  paid  to  him  is  the  estimate  of 
an  able  critic,  George  Long,  that  we  have  a  more  exact 
.  history  of  a  protracted  and  eventful  period  by  Thucy- 
dides than  we  have  of  any  period  in  modern  history 
equally  extended  and  eventful ;  and  all  this  is  com- 
pressed into  a  volume. 

Xenophpn  is  the  last  of  the  trio  of  the  Greek  his- 
torians whose  writings  are  classic  and  inimitable.     He 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       349 


was  bom  probably  about  444  b.  c.  He  is  charactemed 
by  great  simplicity  and  absence  of  affectation.  His 
"Anabasis,"  in  whicb  he  describes  the  expedition  of 
the  younger  Cyrus  and  the  retreat  of  the  ten  thou- 
sand Greeks,  is  his  most  famous  book.  But  his 
"  Cyropsedia,"  in  which  the  history  of  Cyrus  is  the 
subject,  although  still  used  as  a  classic  in  colleges  for 
the  beauty  of  its  style,  has  no  value  as  a  history,  since 
the  author  merely  adopted  the  current  stories  of  his 
hero  without  sufficient  investigation.  Xenophon  wrote 
a  variety  of  treatises  and  dialogues,  but  his  "  Memora- 
bilia "  of  Socrates  is  the  most  valuable.  All  antiquity 
and  all  modern  writers  unite  in  ascribing  to  Xenophon 
great  merit  as  a  writer  and  great  moral  elevation  as 
a  man. 

If  we  pass  from  the  Greek  to  the  Latin  historians,  — 
to  those  who  were  as  famous  as  the  Greek,  and  whose 
merit  has  scarcely  been  transcended  in  our  modern 
times,  if  indeed  it  has  been  equalled,  —  the  great 
names  of  Sallust,  of  Caesar,  of  Livy,  of  Tacitus  rise  up 
before  us,  together  with  a  host  of  other  names  we  have 
not  room  or  disposition  to  present,  since  we  only  aim  to 
show  that  the  ancients  were  at  least  our  equals  in  this 
great  department  of  prose  composition.  The  first  great 
masters  of  the  Greek  language  in  prose  were  the  his- 
torians, so  far  as  we  can  judge  by  the  writings  that 
have  descended  to  us,  although  it  is  probable  that  the 


350  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

orators  may  have  shaped  the  language  before  them,  and 
given  it  flexibility  and  refinement  The  first  great 
prose  writers  of  Eome  were  the  orators ;  nor  was  the 
Latin  language  fully  developed  and  polished  until  Cic- 
ero appeared.  But  we  do  not  here  write  a  history  of 
the  language ;  we  speak  only  of  those  who  wrote  im- 
mortal works  in  the  various  departments  of  learning. 

As  Herodotus  did  not  arise  until  the  Greek  language 
had  been  already  formed  by  the  poets,  so  no  great  prose 
writer  appeared  among  the  Romans  for  a  considera- 
ble time  after  Plautus,  Terence,  Ennius,  and  Lucretius 
flourished.  The  first  great  historian  was  Sallust,  the  con- 
temporary of  Cicero,  born  86  B.  c,  the  year  that  Marius 
died.  Q.  Fabius  Pictor,  M.  Fortius  Cato,  and  L.  Cal. 
Piso  had  already  written  works  which  are  mentioned 
with  respect  by  Latin  authors,  but  they  were  mere 
annalists  or  antiquarians,  like  the  chroniclers  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  had  no  claim  as  artists.  Sallust 
made  Thucydides  his  model,  but  fell  below  him  in 
genius  and  elevated  sentiment.  He  was  bom  a  ple- 
beian, and  rose  to  distinction  by  his  talents,  but  was 
ejected  from  the  senate  for  his  profligacy.  Afterward 
he  made  a  great  fortune  as  pra?tor  and  governor  of 
Numidia,  and  lived  in  magnificence  on  the  Quirinal,  — 
one  of  the  most  profligate  of  the  literary  men  of  an- 
tiquity. We  possess  but  a  small  portion  of  his  works, 
but  the  fragments  which  have  come  down  to  us  show 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       351 


peculiar  merit.  He  sought  to  penetrate  the  human 
heart,  and  to  reveal  the  secret  motives  which  actuate 
the  conduct  of  men.  The  style  of  Sallust  is  brilliant, 
but  his  art  is  always  apparent ;  he  is  clear  and  lively, 
but  rhetorical.  Like  Voltaire,  who  inaugurated  mod- 
ern history,  Sallust  thought  more  of  style  than  of 
accuracy  as  to  facts.  He  was  a  party  man,  and 
never  soared  beyond  his  party.  He  aped  the  moral- 
ist, but  exalted  egoism  and  love  of  pleasure  into 
proper  springs  of  action,  and  honored  talent  discon- 
nected with  virtue.  Like  Carlyle,  Sallust  exalted 
strong  men,  and  because  they  were  strong.  He  was 
not  comprehensive  like  Cicero,  or  philosophical  like 
Thucydides,  although  he  affected  philosophy  as  he 
did  morality.  He  was  the  first  who  deviated  from 
the  strict  narratives  of  events,  and  also  introduced 
much  rhetorical  declamation,  which  he  puts  into  the 
mouths  of  his  heroes.     He  wrote  for  Sclat. 

Julius  Caesar,  born  100  or  102  B.  c,  as  an  historian 
ranks  higher  than  Sallust,  and  no  Eoman  ever  wrote 
purer  Latin.  Yet  his  historical  works,  however  great 
their  merit,  but  feebly  represent  the  transcendent  ge- 
nius of  the  most  august  name  of  antiquity.  He  was 
mathematician,  architect,  poet,  philologist,  orator,  jur- 
ist, general,  statesman,  and  imperator.  In  eloquence 
lie  was  second  only  to  Cicero.  The  great  value  of 
Caesar's  history  is  in  the  sketches  of  the  productions, 


352  LITERARY  GENIUS.- 

the  manners,  the  customs,  and  the  political  conditions 
of  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Germany.  His  observations  on 
military  science,  on  the  operation  of  sieges  and  the 
construction  of  bridges  and  military  engines  are  valu- 
able ;  but  the  description  of  his  military  career  is 
only  a  studied  apology  for  his  crimes,  —  even  as  the 
bulletins  of  Napoleon  were  set  forth  to  show  his  vic- 
tories in  the  most  favorable  light.  Csssar's  fame  rests 
on  his  victories  and  successes  as  a  statesman  rather 
than  on  his  merits  as  an  historian,  —  even  as  Louis 
Napoleon  will  live  in  history  for  his  deeds  rather 
than  as  the  apologist  of  his  great  usurping  proto- 
type. Caesar's  "Commentaries"  resemble  the  history 
of  Herodotus  more  than  any  other  Latin  production, 
at  least  in  style ;  they  are  simple  and  unaffected, 
precise  and  elegant,  plain  and  without  pretension. 

The  Augustan  age  which  followed,  though  it  pro- 
duced a  constellation  of  poets  who  shed  glory  upon 
the  throne  before  which  they  prostrated  themselves 
in  abject  homage,  like  the  courtiers  of  Louis  XIV., 
still  was  unfavorable  to  prose  composition,  —  to  his- 
tory as  well  as  eloquence.  Of  the  historians  of  that 
age,  Livy,  born  59  B.  c,  is  the  only  one  whose  writings 
are  known  to  us,  in  the  shape  of  some  fragments  of 
his  history.  He  was  a  man  of  distinction  at  court, 
and  had  a  great  literary  reputation,  —  so  great  that 
a  Spaniard  travelled   from   Cadiz   on   purpose  to  see 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       353 

him.  Most  of  the  great  historians  of  the  world  have 
occupied  places  of  honor  and  rank,  which  were  given 
to  them  not  as  prizes  for  literary  successes,  but  for 
the  experience,  knowledge,  and  culture  which  high 
social  position  and  ample  means  secure.  Herodotus 
lived  in  courts;  Thucydides  was  a  great  general,  as 
also  was  Xenophon ;  Csesar  was  the  first  man  of  his 
times ;  Sallust  was  praetor  and  governor ;  Livy  was 
tutor  to  Claudius ;  Tacitus  was  prsetor  and  consul ; 
Eusebius  was  bishop  and  favorite  of  Constantine  ;  Am- 
mianus  was  the  friend  of  the  Emperor  Julian ;  Gregory 
of  Tours  was  one  of  the  leading  prelates  of  the  West ; 
Froissart  attended  in  person,  as  a  man  of  rank,  the 
military  expeditions  of  his  day;  Clarendon  was  Lord 
Chancellor ;  Burnet  was  a  bishop  and  favorite  of  Wil- 
liam III. ;  Thiers  and  Guizot  both  were  prime  mmis' 
ters  ;  while  Gibbon,  Hume,  Eobertson,  Macaulay,  Grote, 
Milman,  Froude,  Neander,  Niebuhr,  Miiller,  Dahlman, 
Buckle,  Prescott,  Irving,  Bancroft,  Motley,  have  all 
been  men  of  wealth  or  position.  Nor  do  I  remember 
a  single  illustrious  historian  who  has  been  poor  and 
neglected. 

The  ancients  regarded  Livy  as  the  greatest  of  histo- 
rians, —  an  opinion  not  indorsed  by  modern  critics,  on 
account  of  his  inaccuracies.  But  his  narrative  is  al- 
ways interesting,  and  his  language  pure.  He  did  not 
sift  evidence  like  Grote,  nor  generalize  like  Gibbon; 


354  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

but  like  Voltaire  and  Macaulay,  he  was  an  artist  in 
style,  and  possessed  undoubted  genius.  His  Annals 
are  comprised  in  one  hundred  and  forty-two  books, 
extending  from  the  foundation  of  the  city  to  the  death 
of  Drusus,  9  B.C.,  of  which  only  thirty-five  have  come 
down  to  us,  —  an  impressive  commentary  on  the  van- 
dalism of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  ignorance  of  the 
monks  who  could  not  preserve  so  great  a  treasure. 
"His  story  flows  in  a  calm,  clear,  sparkling  current, 
with  every  charm  which  simplicity  and  ease  can 
give."  He  delineates  character  with  great  clearness 
and  power;  his  speeches  are  noble  rhetorical  composi- 
tions ;  his  sentences  are  rhythmical  cadences.  Livy 
was  not  a  critical  historian  like  Herodotus,  for  he  took 
his  materials  second-hand,  and  was  ignorant  of  geogra- 
phy, nor  did  he  write  with  the  exalted  ideal  of  Thu- 
cydides ;  but  as  a  painter  of  beautiful  forms,  which 
only  a  rich  imagination  could  conjure,  he  is  unrivalled 
in  the  history  of  literature.  Moreover,  he  was  honest 
and  sound  in  heart,  and  was  just  and  impartial  in 
reference  to  those  facts  with  which  he  was  conversant. 
In  the  estimation  of  modem  critics  the  highest  rank 
as  an  historian  is  assigned  to  Tacitus,  and  it  would  in- 
deed be  difficult  to  find  his  superior  in  any  age  or  coun- 
try. He  was  bom  57  a.  d.,  about  forty-three  years 
after  the  death  of  Augustus.  He  belonged  to  the 
equestrian  rank,  and  was  a  man  of  consular  dignity. 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN   CLASSICS.       355 


He  had  every  facility  for  literary  labors  that  leisure, 
wealth,  friends,  and  social  position  could  give,  and 
lived  under  a  reign  when  truth  might  be  told.  The 
extant  works  of  this  great  writer  are  the  "Life  of 
Agricola,"  his  father-in-law ;  his  "  Annales,"  which 
begin  with  the  death  of  Augustus,  14  a.  d,,  and  close 
with  the  death  of  Nero,  68  a.  d.  ;  the  "  Historiae," 
which  comprise  the  period  from  the  second  consulate 
of  Galba,  68  a.  d.,  to  the  death  of  Domitian ;  and  a 
treatise  on  the  Germans.  His  histories  describe  Eome 
in  the  fulness  of  imperial  glory,  when  the  will  of 
one  man  was  the  supreme  law  of  the  empire.  He 
also  wrote  of  events  that  occurred  when  liberty  had 
fled,  and  the  yoke  of  despotism  was  nearly  insup- 
portable. He  describes  a  period  of  great  moral  degra- 
dation, nor  does  he  hesitate  to  lift  the  veil  of  hypocrisy 
in  which  his  generation  had  wrapped  itself.  He 
fearlessly  exposes  the  cruelties  and  iniquities  of  the 
early  emperors,  and  writes  with  judicial  impartiality 
respecting  all  the  great  characters  he  describes.  No 
ancient  writer  shows  greater  moral  dignity  and  in- 
tegrity of  purpose  than  Tacitus.  In  point  of  artistic 
unity  he  is  superior  to  Livy  and  equal  to  Thucy- 
dides,  whom  he  resembles  in  conciseness  of  style. 
His  distinguishing  excellence  as  an  historian  is  his 
sagacity  and  impartiality.  Nothing  escapes  his  pen- 
etrating eye ;  and  he  inflicts  merited  chastisement  on 


356  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

the  tyrants  who  revelled  in  the  prostrated  liberties  of 
his  country,  while  he  immortalizes  those  few  who  were 
faithful  to  duty  and  conscience  in  a  degenerate  age. 
But  the  writings  of  Tacitus  were  not  so  popular  as 
those  of  Livy,  since  neither  princes  nor  people  relished 
his  intellectual  independence  and  moral  elevation.  He 
does  not  satisfy  Dr.  Arnold,  who  thinks  he  ought  to 
have  been  better  versed  in  the  history  of  the  Jews, 
and  who  dislikes  his  speeches  because  they  were 
fictitious. 

Neither  the  Latin  nor  Greek  historians  are  admired 
by  those  dry  critics  who  seek  to  give  to  rare  antiqua- 
rian matter  a  disproportionate  importance,  and  to  make 
this  matter  as  fixed  and  certain  as  the  truths  of  natural 
science.  History  can  never  be  other  than  an  approxi- 
mation to  the  truth,  even  when  it  relates  to  the  events 
and  characters  of  its  own  age.  History  does  not  give 
positive,  indisputable  knowledge.  We  know  that  Cae- 
sar was  ambitious  ;  but  we  do  not  know  whether  he 
was  more  or  less  so  than  Pompey,  nor  do  we  know 
how  far  he  was  justified  in  his  usurpation.  A  great 
history  must  have  other  merits  besides  accuracy,  anti- 
quarian research,  and  presentation  of  authorities  and 
notes.  It  must  be  a  work  of  art;  and  art  has  refer- 
ence to  style  and  language,  to  grouping  of  details  and 
richness  of  illustration,  to  eloquence  and  poetry  and 
beauty.     A  dry  history,  however  learned,  will  never 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       357 


be  read ;  it  will  only  be  consulted,  like  a  law-book,  or 
Mosheim's  "Commentaries."  We  require  life  in  his- 
tory, and  it  is  for  their  vividness  that  the  writings  of 
Livy  and  Tacitus  will  be  perpetuated.  Voltaire  and 
Schiller  have  no  great  merit  as  historians  in  a  technical 
sense,  but  the  "  Life  of  Charles  XII."  and  the  "  Thirty 
Years'  War"  are  still  classics.  Neander  has  written 
one  of  the  most  searching  and  recondite  histories  of 
modern  times  ;  but  it  is  too  dry,  too  deficient  in  art,  to 
be  cherished,  and  may  pass  away  like  the  voluminous 
writings  of  Varro,  the  most  learned  of  the  Eomans. 
It  is  the  art  which  is  immortal  in  a  book,  —  not  the 
knowledge,  nor  even  the  thoughts.  What  keeps  alive 
the  "  Provincial  Letters  "  of  Pascal  ?  It  is  the  style,  the 
irony,  the  elegance  that  characterize  them.  The  ex- 
quisite delineation  of  character,  the  moral  wisdom,  the 
purity  and  force  of  language,  the  artistic  arrangement, 
and  the  lively  and  interesting  narrative  appealing  to 
all  minds,  like  the  "Arabian  Nights"  or  Froissait's 
"  Chronicles,"  are  the  elements  which  give  immortality 
to  the  classic  authors.  We  will  not  let  them  perish, 
because  they  amuse  and  interest  and  inspire  us. 

A  remarkable  example  is  that  of  Plutarch,  who, 
although  born  a  Greek  and  writing  in  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, was  a  contemporary  of  Tacitus,  lived  long  in 
Eome,  and  was  one  of  the  "  immortals  "  of  the  imperial 
age.     A  teacher  of  philosophy  during  his  early  man- 


358  LITER  A  R  Y  GENIUS : 

hood,  he  spent  his  last  years  as  archon  and  priest  of 
Apollo  in  his  native  town.  His  most  famous  work  is 
his  "  Parallel  Lives  "  of  forty-six  historic  Greeks  and 
Romans,  arranged  in  pairs,  depicted  with  marvellous 
art  and  all  the  fascination  of  anecdote  and  social  wit, 
while  presenting  such  clear  conceptions  of  characters 
and  careers,  and  the  whole  so  restrained  within  the 
bounds  of  good  taste  and  harmonious  proportion,  as 
to  have  been  even  to  this  day  regarded  as  forming  a 
model  for  the  ideal  biography. 

But  it  is  taking  a  narrow  view  of  history  to  make 
all  writers  after  the  same  pattern,  even  as  it  would 
be  bigoted  to  make  all  Christians  belong  to  the  same 
sect.  Some  will  be  remarkable  for  style,  others  for 
learning,  and  others  again  for  moral  and  philosophical 
wisdom ;  some  will  be  minute,  and  others  generalizing ; 
some  will  dig  out  a  multiplicity  of  facts  without  appar- 
ent object,  and  others  induce  from  those  facts ;  some 
will  make  essays,  and  others  chronicles.  We  have 
need  of  all  styles  and  all  kinds  of  excellence.  A  great 
and  original  thinker  may  not  have  the  time  or  oppor- 
tunity or  taste  for  a  minute  and  searching  criticism 
of  original  authorities ;  but  he  may  be  able  to  gener- 
alize previously  established  facts  so  as  to  draw  most 
valuable  moral  instruction  from  them  for  the  benefit 
of  his  readers.  History  is  a  boundless  field  of  in- 
quiry;   no  man  can  master  it  in  all  its  departments 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       359 


and  periods.  It  will  not  do  to  lay  great  emphasis 
on  minute  details,  and  neglect  the  art  of  generaliza- 
tion. If  an  historian  attempts  to  embody  too  much 
learning,  he  is  likely  to  be  deficient  in  originality ;  if 
he  would  say  everything,  he  is  apt  to  be  dry ;  if  he 
elaborates  too  much,  he  loses  animation.  Moreover, 
different  classes  of  readers  require  different  kinds  and 
styles  of  histories;  there  must  be  histories  for  stu- 
dents, histories  for  old  men,  histories  for  young  men, 
histories  to  amuse,  and  histories  to  instruct.  If  all 
men  were  to  write  history  according  to  Dr.  Arnold's 
views,  we  should  have  histories  of  interest  only  to  clas- 
sical scholars.  The  ancient  historians  never  quoted 
their  sources  of  knowledge,  but  were  valued  for  their 
richness  of  thoughts  and  artistic  beauty  of  style.  The 
ages  in  which  they  flourished  attached  no  value  to 
pedantic  displays  of  learning  paraded  in  foot-notes. 

Thus  the  great  historians  whom  I  have  mentioned, 
both  Greek  and  Latin,  have  few  equals  and  no  supe- 
riors in  our  own  times  in  those  things  that  are  most 
to  be  admired.  They  were  not  pedants,  but  men  of 
immense  genius  and  genuine  learning,  who  blended 
the  profoundest  principles  of  moral  wisdom  with  the 
most  fascinating  narrative, — men  universally  popular 
among  learned  and  unlearned,  great  artists  in  style, 
and  masters  of  the  language  in  which  they  wrote. 

Eome  can  boast  of  no  great  historian  after  Tacitus, 


360  LITER  ART  GENIUS: 

who  should  have  belonged  to  the  Ciceronian  epoch- 
Suetonius,  bom  about  the  year  70  a.  d.,  shortly  after 
Nero's  death,  was  rather  a  biographer  than  an  histo- 
rian; nor  as  a  biographer  does  he  take  a  high  rank. 
His  "  Lives  of  the  Caesars,"  like  Diogenes  Laertius's 
"Lives  of  the  Philosophers,"  are  rather  anecdotical 
than  historical.  L.  Anneus  Florus,  who  flourished 
during  the  reign  of  Trnjan,  has  left  a  series  of 
sketches  of  the  different  wars  from  the  days  of  Eom- 
ulus  to  those  of  Augustus.  Frontinus  epitomized  the 
large  histories  of  Pompeius.  Ammianus  Marcellinus 
wrote  a  history  from  Nerva  to  Valens,  and  is  often 
quoted  by  Gibbon.  But  none  wrote  who  should  be 
adduced  as  examples  of  the  triumph  of  genius,  except 
Sallust,  Caesar,  Livy,  Plutarch,  and  Tacitus. 

There  is  another  field  of  prose  composition  in  which 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  gained  great  distinction,  and 
proved  themselves  equal  to  any  nation  of  modern 
times, — that  of  eloquence.  It  is  true,  we  have  not  a 
rich  collection  of  ancient  speeches ;  but  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  both  Greeks  and  Eomans  were 
most  severely  trained  in  the  art  of  public  speaking, 
and  that  forensic  eloquence  was  highly  prized  and 
munificently  rewarded.  It  began  with  democratic 
institutions,  and  flourished  as  long  as  the  People 
were  a  great  power  in  the   State ;  it  declined  when- 


THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      361 


ever  and  wherever  tyrants  bore  rule.  Eloquence  and 
liberty  flourish  together;  nor  can  there  be  eloquence 
where  there  is  not  freedom  of  debate.  In  the  fifth 
century  before  Christ  —  the  first  century  of  democ- 
racy —  great  orators  arose,  for  without  the  power  and 
the  opportunity  of  defending  himself  against  accusa- 
tion no  man  could  hold  an  ascendent  position.  Soc- 
rates insisted  upon  the  gift  of  oratory  for  a  general 
in  the  army  as  well  as  for  a  leader  in  political  life. 
In  Athens  the  courts  of  justice  were  numerous,  and 
those  who  could  not  defend  themselves  were  obliged 
to  secure  the  services  of  those  who  were  trained  in 
the  use  of  public  speaking.  Thus  arose  the  lawyers, 
among  whom  eloquence  was  more  in  demand  and 
more  richly  paid  than  in  any  other  class.  Rheto- 
ric became  connected  with  dialectics,  and  in  Greece, 
Sicily,  and  Italy  both  were  extensively  cultivated. 
Empedocles  was  distinguished  as  much  for  rhetoric 
as  for  philosophy.  It  was  not,  however,  in  the  courts 
of  law  that  eloquence  displayed  the  greatest  fire  and 
passion,  but  in  political  "assemblies.  These  could  only 
coexist  with  liberty;  for  a  democracy  is  more  favor- 
able than  an  aristocracy  to  large  assemblies  of  citi- 
zens. In  the  Grecian  republics  eloquence  as  an  art 
may  be  said  to  have  been  born.  It  was  nursed  and 
fed  by  political  agitation,  by  the  strife  of  parties.  It 
arose  from  appeals  to  the  people  as  a  source  of  power : 


362  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

when  the  people  were  not  cultivated,  it  addressed 
chiefly  popular  passions  and  prejudices ;  when  they 
were  enlightened,  it  addressed  interests. 

It  was  in  Athens,  where  there  existed  the  purest 
form  of  democratic  institutions,  that  eloquence  rose 
to  the  loftiest  heights  in  the  ancient  world,  so  far  as 
eloquence  appeals  to  popular  passions.  Pericles,  the 
greatest  statesman  of  Greece,  495  b.  c,  was  celebrated 
for  his  eloquence,  although  no  specimens  remain  to 
us.  It  was  conceded  by  the  ancient  authors  that  his 
oratory  was  of  the  highest  kind,  and  the  epithet  of 
"Olympian"  was  given  him,  as  carrying  the  weapons 
of  Zeus  upon  his  tongue.  His  voice  was  sweet,  and 
his  utterance  distinct  and  rapid.  Peisistratus  was  also 
famous  for  his  eloquence,  although  he  was  a  usurper 
and  a  tyrant.  Isocrates,  436  b.  c,  was  a  professed 
rhetorician,  and  endeavored  to  base  his  art  upon  sound 
moral  principles,  and  rescue  it  from  the  influence  of 
the  Sophists.  He  was  the  great  teacher  of  the  most 
eminent  statesmen  of  his  day.  Twenty-one  of  his 
orations  have  come  down  to  us,  and  they  are  exces- 
sively polished  and  elaborated ;  but  they  were  written 
to  be  read,  they  were  not  extemporary.  His  language 
is  the  purest  and  most  refined  Attic  dialect.  Lysias, 
458  B.  c,  was  a  fertile  writer  of  orations  also,  and  he 
is  reputed  to  have  produced  as  many  as  four  hundred 
and  twenty-five;  of  these  only  thirty-five  are  extant. 


From  the  statue  in  the  Vatican,  Borne 
DEMOSTHENES 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      363 


They  are  characterized  by  peculiar  gracefulness  and 
elegance,  which  did  not  interfere  with  strength.  So 
able  were  these  orations  that  only  two  were  unsuc- 
cessful. They  were  so  pure  that  they  were  regarded 
as  the  best  canon  of  the  Attic  idiom. 

But  all  the  orators  of  Greece  —  and  Greece  was  the 
land  of  orators  —  gave  way  to  Demosthenes,  bom 
385  B.  c.  He  received  a  good  education,  and  is  said 
to  have  been  instructed  in  philosophy  by  Plato  and 
in  eloquence  by  Isocrates ;  but  it  is  more  probable  that 
he  privately  prepared  himself  for  his  brilliant  career. 
As  soon  as  he  attained  his  majority,  he  brought  suits 
against  the  men  whom  his  father  had  appointed  his 
guardians,  for  their  waste  of  property,  and  after  two 
years  was  successful,  conducting  the  prosecution  him- 
self. It  was  not  until  the  age  of  thirty  that  he  ap- 
peared as  a  speaker  in  the  public  assembly  on  political 
matters,  where  he  rapidly  attained  universal  respect, 
and  became  one  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  Athens. 
Henceforth  he  took  an  active  part  in  every  question 
that  concerned  the  State.  He  especially  distinguished 
himself  in  his  speeches  against  Macedonian  aggrandize- 
ments, and  his  Philippics  are  perhaps  the  most  brilliant 
of  his  orations.  But  the  cause  which  he  advocated  was 
unfortunate  ;  the  battle  of  Cheronaea,  338  B.  c,  put  an 
end  to  the  independence  of  Greece,  and  Philip  of  Mace- 
don  was  all-powerful.  For  this  catastrophe  Demos- 
voL.  I.  —  22 


364  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

thenes  was  somewhat  responsible,  but  as  his  motives 
were  conceded  to  be  pure  and  his  patriotism  lofty,  he 
retained  the  confidence  of  his  countrymen.  Accused 
by  -^schines,  he  delivered  his  famous  Oration  on  the 
Crown.  Afterward,  during  the  supremacy  of  Alex- 
ander, Demosthenes  was  again  accused,  and  suffered 
exile.  Kecalled  from  exile  on  the  death  of  Alexan- 
der, he  roused  himself  for  the  deliverance  of  Greece, 
without  success ;  and  hunted  by  his  enemies  he  took 
poison  in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age,  having  vainly 
contended  for  the  freedom  of  his  country,  —  one  of  the 
noblest  spirits  of  antiquity,  and  lofty  in  his  private 
life. 

As  an  orator  Demosthenes  has  not  probably  been 
equalled  by  any  man  of  any  country.  By  his  con- 
temporaries he  was  regarded  as  faultless  in  this  re- 
spect; and  when  it  is  remembered  that  he  struggled 
against  physical  difficulties  which  in  the  early  part 
of  his  career  would  have  utterly  discouraged  any 
ordinary  man,  we  feel  that  he  deserves  the  highest 
commendation.  He  never  spoke  without  preparation, 
and  most  of  his  orations  were  severely  elaborated. 
He  never  trusted  to  the  impulse  of  the  occasion;  he 
did  not  believe  in  extemporary  eloquence  any  more 
than  Daniel  Webster,  who  said  there  is  no  such  thing. 
All  the  orations  of  Demosthenes  exhibit  him  as  a 
pure  and  noble  patriot,  and   are   full   of  the  loftiest 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      365 


sentiments.  He  was  a  great  artist,  and  his  oratorical 
successes  were  greatly  owing  to  the  arrangement  of 
his  speeches  and  the  application  of  the  strongest 
arguments  in  their  proper  places.  Added  to  this 
moral  and  intellectual  superiority  was  the  "  magic 
power  of  his  language,  majestic  and  simple  at  the 
same  time,  rich  yet  not  bombastic,  strange  and  yet 
familiar,  solemn  and  not  too  ornate,  grave  and  yet 
pleasing,  concise  and  yet  fluent,  sweet  and  yet  im- 
pressive, which  altogether  carried  away  the  minds  of 
his  hearers."  His  orations  were  most  highly  prized 
by  the  ancients,  who  wrote  innumerable  commentaries 
on  them,  most  of  which  are  lost.  Sixty  of  the  great 
productions  of  his  genius  have  come  down  to  us. 

Demosthenes,  like  other  orators,  first  became  known 
as  the  composer  of  speeches  for  litigants ;  but  his  fame 
was  based  on  the  orations  he  pronounced  in  great  po- 
litical emergencies.  His  rival  was  ^schines,  who  was 
vastly  inferior  to  Demosthenes,  although  bold,  vigorous, 
and  brilliant.  Indeed,  the  opinions  of  mankind  for  two 
thousand  years  have  been  unanimous  in  ascribing  to 
Demosthenes  the  highest  position  as  an  orator  among 
all  the  men  of  ancient  and  modern  times.  David 
Hume  says  of  him  that  "  could  his  manner  be  copied, 
its  success  would  be  infallible  over  a  modern  audience." 
Says  Lord  Brougham,  "It  is  rapid  harmony  exactly 
adjusted    to    the   sense.      It  is   vehement   reasoning. 


366  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

without  any  appearance  of  art.  It  is  disdain,  anger, 
boldness,  freedom  involved  in  a  continual  stream  of 
argument;  so  that  of  all  human  productions  his  ora- 
tions present  to  us  the  models  which  approach  the 
nearest  to  perfection." 

It  is  probable  that  the  Komans  were  behind  the 
Athenians  in  all  the  arts  of  rhetoric ;  yet  in  the  days 
of  the  republic  celebrated  orators  arose  among  the  law- 
yers and  politicians.  It  was  in  forensic  eloquence  that 
Latin  prose  first  appeared  as  a  cultivated  language ; 
for  the  forum  was  to  the  Eomans  what  libraries  are 
to  us.  The  art  of  public  speaking  in  Eome  was  early 
dereloped.  Cato,  Lselius,  Carbo,  and  the  Gracchi  are 
said  to  have  been  majestic  and  harmonious  in  speech, 
yet  excelled  by  Antonius,  Crassus,  Cotta,  Sulpitius,  and 
Hortensius.  The  last  had  a  very  brilliant  career  as 
an  orator,  though  his  orations  were  too  florid  to  be 
read.  Caesar  was  also  distinguished  for  his  eloquence, 
its  characteristics  being  force  and  purity.  "  Ccelius 
was  noted  for  lofty  sentiment,  Brutus  for  philosophi- 
cal wisdom,  Calidius  for  a  delicate  and  harmonious 
style,  and  Calvus  for  sententious  force." 

But  all  the  Roman  orators  yielded  to  Cicero,  as  the 
Greeks  did  to  Demosthenes.  These  two  men  are  al- 
ways coupled  together  when  allusion  is  made  to  elo- 
quence. They  were  pre-eminent  in  the  ancient  world, 
and  have  never  been  equalled  in  the  modern. 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      367 


Cicero,  106  B.  c,  was  probably  not  equal  to  his  great 
Grecian  rival  in  vehemence,  in  force,  in  fiery  argument 
which  swept  everything  away  before  him,  nor  gener- 
ally in  original  genius;  but  he  was  his  superior  in 
learning,  in  culture,  and  in  breadth.  Cicero  distm- 
guished  himself  very  early  as  an  advocate,  but  his 
first  great  public  effort  was  made  in  the  prosecution  of 
Verres  for  corruption.  Although  Verres  was  defended 
by  Hortensius  and  backed  by  the  whole  influence  of 
the  Metelli  and  other  powerful  families,  Cicero  gained 
his  cause,  —  more  fortunate  than  Burke  in  his  prose- 
cution of  Warren  Hastings,  who  also  was  sustained  by 
powerful  interests  and  families.  The  speech  on  the 
Manilian  Law,  when  Cicero  appeared  as  a  political  ora- 
tor, greatly  contributed  to  his  popularity,  I  need  not 
describe  his  memorable  career,  —  his  successive  elec- 
tions to  all  the  highest  offices  of  state,  his  detection  of 
Catiline's  conspiracy,  his  opposition  to  turbulent  and 
ambitious  partisans,  his  alienations  and  friendships, 
his  brilliant  career  as  a  statesman,  his  misfortunes  and 
sorrows,  his  exile  and  recall,  his  splendid  services  to 
the  State,  his  greatness  and  his  defects,  his  virtues  and 
weaknesses,  his  triumphs  and  martyrdom.  These  are 
foreign  to  my  purpose.  No  man  of  heathen  antiquity 
is  better  known  to  us,  and  no  man  by  pure  genius  ever 
won  more  glorious  laurels.  His  life  and  labors  are  im- 
mortal.    His  virtues  and  services  are  embalmed  in  the 


368  LITERARY  GENIUS: 


heart  of  the  world.  Few  men  ever  performed  greater 
literary  labors,  and  in  so  many  of  its  departments. 
Next  to  Aristotle  and  Varro,  Cicero  was  the  most 
learned  man  of  antiquity,  but  performed  more  varied 
labors  than  either,  since  he  was  not  only  great  as  a 
writer  and  speaker,  but  also  as  a  statesman,  being  the 
most  conspicuous  man  in  Rome  after  Pompey  and 
Caesar.  He  may  not  have  had  the  moral  greatness 
of  Socrates,  nor  the  philosophical  genius  of  Plato,  nor 
the  overpowering  eloquence  of  Demosthenes,  but  he 
was  a  master  of  all  the  wisdom  of  antiquity.  Even 
civil  law,  the  great  science  of  the  Eomans,  became 
interesting  in  his  hands,  and  was  divested  of  its 
dryness  and  technicality.  He  popularized  history, 
and  paid  honor  to  all  art,  even  to  the  stage ;  he  made 
the  R6mans  conversant  with  the  philosophy  of  Greece, 
and  systematized  the  various  speculations.  He  may 
not  have  added  to  philosophy,  but  no  Roman  after 
him  understood  so  well  the  practical  bearing  of  all 
its  various  systems.  His  glory  is  purely  intellectual, 
and  it  was  by  sheer  genius  that  he  rose  to  his  exalted 
position  and  influence. 

But  it  was  in  forensic  eloquence  that  Cicero  was 
pre-eminent,  in  which  he  had  but  one  equal  in  ancient 
times.  Roman  eloquence  culminated  in  him.  He 
composed  about  eighty  orations,  of  which  fifty-nine 
are  preserved.     Some  were  delivered  from  the  rostrum 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       369 

to  the  people,  and  some  in  the  senate ;  some  were  mere 
philippics,  as  severe  in  denunciation  as  those  of  De- 
mosthenes ;  some  were  laudatory ;  some  were  judicial ; 
but  all  were  severely  logical,  full  of  historical  allusion, 
profound  in  philosophical  wisdom,  and  pervaded  with 
the  spirit  of  patriotism.  Francis  W.  Newman,  in  his 
"  Kegal  Eome,"  thus  describes  Cicero's  eloquence :  — 

"  He  goes  round  and  round  his  object,  surveys  it  in  every 
light,  examines  it  in  all  its  parts,  retires  and  then  advances, 
compares  and  contrasts  it,  illustrates,  confirms,  and  enforces 
it,  till  the  hearer  feels  ashamed  of  doubting  a  position 
which  seems  built  on  a  foundation  so  strictly  argumenta- 
tive. And  having  established  his  case,  he  opens  upon  his 
opponent  a  discharge  of  raillery  so  delicate  and  good-natured 
that  it  is  impossible  for  the  latter  to  maintain  his  ground 
against  it ;  or,  when  the  subject  is  too  grave,  he  colors  his 
exaggerations  with  all  the  bitterness  of  irony  and  vehemence 
of  passion." 

Critics  have  uniformly  admired  Cicero's  style  as 
peculiarly  suited  to  the  Latin  language,  which,  being 
scanty  and  unmusical,  requires  more  redundancy  than 
the  Greek.  The  simplicity  of  the  Attic  writers  would 
make  Latin  composition  bald  and  tame.  To  be  per- 
spicuous, the  Latin  must  be  full.  Thus  Arnold  thinks 
that  what  Tacitus  gained  in  energy  he  lost  in  elegance 
and  perspicuity.  But  Cicero,  dealing  with  a  barren 
and  unpliilosophical  language,  enriched  it  with  circum- 


370  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

locutions  and  metaphors,  while  he  freed  it  of  harsh  and 
uncouth  expressions,  and  thus  became  the  greatest  mas- 
ter of  composition  the  world  has  seen.  He  was  a  great 
artist,  making  use  of  his  scanty  matejials  to  the  best 
effect ;  he  had  absolute  control  over  the  resources  of 
his  vernacular  tongue,  and  not  only  unrivalled  skill  in 
composition,  but  tact  and  judgment.  Thus  he  was 
generally  successful,  in  spite  of  the  venality  and  cor- 
ruption of  the  times.  The  courts  of  justice  were  the 
scenes  of  his  earliest  triumphs;  nor  until  he  was  praetor 
did  he  speak  from  the  rostrum  on  mere  political  ques- 
tions, as  in  reference  to  the  Manilian  and  Agrarian 
laws.  It  is  in  his  political  discourses  that  Cicero  rises 
to  the  highest  ranks.  In  his  speeches  against  Verres, 
Catiline,  and  Antony  he  kindles  in  his  countrymen 
lofty  feelings  for  the  honor  of  his  country,  and  abhor- 
rence of  tyranny  and  corruption.  Indeed,  he  hated 
bloodshed,  injustice,  and  strife,  and  beheld  the  down- 
fall of  liberty  with  indescribable  sorrow. 

Thus  in  oratory  as  in  history  the  ancients  can  boast 
of  most  illustrious  examples,  never  even  equalled. 
Still,  we  cannot  tell  the  comparative  merits  of  the 
great  classical  orators  of  antiquity  with  the  more  dis- 
tinguished of  our  times ;  indeed  only  Mirabeau,  Pitt, 
Fox,  Burke,  Brougham,  "Webster,  and  Clay  can  even 
be  compared  with  them.  In  power  of  moving  the 
people,  some  of   our  modern  reformers  and  agitators 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN   CLASSICS.       371 


may  be  mentioned  favorably ;  but  their  harangues  are 
comparatively  tame  when  read. 

In  philosophy  the  Greeks  and  Eomans  distinguished 
themselves  more  even  than  in  poetry,  or  history,  or 
eloquence.     Their  speculations  pertained  to  the  loftiest 
subjects  that  ever  tasked  the  intellect  of  man.     But 
this  great    department    has    already   been    presented. 
There  were  respectable  writers   in   various  other  de- 
partments of  literature,  but  no  very  great  names  whose 
writings  have  descended  to  us.      Contemporaries  had 
an  exalted  opinion  of  Varro,  who  was  considered  the 
most  learned  of  the  Eomans,  as  well  as  their  most 
voluminous  author.      He  was  bom  ten  years  before 
Cicero,  and  is  highly  commended  by  Augustine.     He 
was  entirely  devoted  to  literature,  took  no  interest  in 
passing  events,  and  lived  to  a  good   old  aga     Saint 
Augustine  says  of  him  that  "he  wrote  so  much  that 
one  wonders  how  he  had  time  to  read;  and  he  read 
so  much,  we  are  astonished  how  he   found  time  to 
write."     He  composed  four  hundred  and  ninety  books. 
Of  these  only  one  has  descended  to  us  entire,  — "  Da 
Ee  Eustica,"  written  at  the  age  of  eighty ;  but  it  is  the 
best  treatise  which  has  come  down  from  antiquity  on 
ancient  agriculture.     We  have  parts  of  his  other  books, 
and  we  know  of  still  others  that  have  entirely  per- 
ished which  for  their  information  would  be  invalu- 
able, especially  his  "  Divine  Antiquities,"  in  sixteen 


372  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

books,  —  his  great  work,  from  which  Saint  Augustine 
drew  materials  for  his  "City  of  God."  Varro  wrote 
treatises  on  language,  on  the  poets,  on  philosophy,  on 
geography,  and  on  various  other  subjects ;  he  also 
wrote  satire  and  criticism.  But  although  his  writ-< 
ings  were  learned,  his  style  was  so  bad  that  the  ages 
have  failed  to  preserve  him.  The  truly  immortal 
books  are  most  valued  for  their  artistic  excellences. 
No  man,  however  great  his  genius,  can  afford  to  be 
dull.  Style  is  to  written  composition  what  delivery 
is  to  a  public  speaker.  The  multitude  do  not  go  to 
hear  the  man  of  thoughts,  but  to  hear  the  man  of 
words,  being  repelled  or  attracted  by  manner. 

Seneca  was  another  great  writer  among  the  Eomans, 
but  he  belongs  to  the  domain  of  philosophy,  although 
it  is  his  ethical  works  which  have  given  him  immortal- 
ity, —  as  may  be  truly  said  of  Socrates  and  Epictetus, 
although  they  are  usually  classed  among  the  philoso- 
phers. Seneca  was  a  Spaniard,  born  but  a  few  years 
before  the  Christian  era ;  he  was  a  lawyer  and  a  rhe- 
torician, also  a  teacher  and  minister  of  Nero.  It  was 
his  misfortune  to  know  one  of  the  most  detestable 
princes  that  ever  scandalized  humanity,  and  it  is  not 
to  his  credit  to  have  accumulated  in  four  years  one 
of  the  largest  fortunes  in  Kome  while  serving  such  a 
master;  but  since  he  lived  to  experience  Nero's  in- 
gratitude,  Seneca   is   more   commonly   regarded  as   a 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       373 

martyr.  Had  he  lived  in  the  republican  period,  he 
would  have  been  a  great  orator.  He  wrote  volumi- 
nously, on  many  subjects,  and  was  devoted  to  a  lit- 
erary life.  He  rejected  the  superstitions  of  his  coun- 
try, and  looked  upon  the  ritualism  of  religion  as  a  mere 
fashion.  In  his  own  belief  he  was  a  deist ;  but  though 
he  wrote  fine  ethical  treatises,  he  dishonored  his  own 
virtues  by  a  compliance  with  the  vices  of  others.  He 
saw  much  of  life,  and  died  at  fifty-three.  What  is 
remarkable  in  Seneca's  writings,  which  are  clear  but 
labored,  is  that  under  Pagan  influences  and  imperial 
tyranny  he  should  have  presented  such  lofty  moral 
truth ;  and  it  is  a  mark  of  almost  transcendent  talent 
that  he  should,  unaided  by  Christianity,  have  soared 
so  high  in  the  realm  of  ethical  inquiry.  Nor  is  it 
easy  to  find  any  modern  author  who  has  treated  great 
questions  in  so  attractive  a  way. 

Quintilian  is  a  Latin  classic,  and  belongs  to  the 
class  of  rhetoricians.  He  should  have  been  men- 
tioned among  the  orators,  yet,  like  Lysias  the  Greek, 
Quintilian  was  a  teacher  of  eloquence  rather  than 
an  orator.  He  was  born  40  a.  d.,  and  taught  the 
younger  Pliny,  also  two  nephews  of  Domitian,  re- 
ceiving a  regular  salary  from  the  imperial  treasury. 
His  great  work  is  a  complete  system  of  rhetoric. 
"  Institutiones  Oratorise "  is  one  of  the  clearest  and 
fullest  of  all  rhetorical  manuals  ever  written  in  any 


374  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

language,  although,  as  a  literary  production,  it  is  in- 
ferior to  the  "  De  Oratore "  of  Cicero.  It  is  very 
practical  and  sensible,  and  a  complete  compendium 
of  every  topic  likely  to  be  useful  in  the  education 
of  an  aspirant  for  the  honors  of  eloquence.  In  sys- 
tematic arrangement  it  falls  short  of  a  similar  work 
by  Aristotle;  but  it  is  celebrated  for  its  sound  judg- 
ment and  keen  discrimination,  showing  great  reading 
and  reflection.  Quintilian  should  be  viewed  as  a  critic 
rather  than  as  a  rhetorician,  since  he  entered  into  the 
merits  and  defects  of  the  great  masters  of  Greek  and 
Roman  literature.  In  his  peculiar  province  he  has  had 
no  superior.  Like  Cicero  or  Demosthenes  or  Plato  or 
Thucydides  or  Tacitus,  Quintilian  would  be  a  great  man 
if  he  lived  in  our  times,  and  could  proudly  challenge 
the  modern  world  to  produce  a  better  teacher  than 
he  in  the  art  of  public  speaking. 

There  were  other  classical  writers  of  immense  fame, 
but  they  do  not  represent  any  particular  class  in  the 
field  of  literature  which  can  be  compared  with  the 
modem.  I  can  only  draw  attention  to  Lucian,  —  a 
witty  and  voluminous  Greek  author,  who  lived  in  the 
reign  of  Commodus,  and  who  wrote  rhetorical,  critical, 
and  biographical  works,  and  even  romances  which  have 
given  hints  to  modem  authors.  His  fame  rests  on  his 
"  Dialogues,"  intended  to  ridicule  the  heathen  philoso- 
phy and  religion,  and  which  show  him  to  have  been 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN   CLASSICS,      375 

one  of  the  great  masters  of  ancient  satire  and  mockery. 
His  style  of  dialogue  —  a  combination  of  Plato  and 
Aristophanes  —  is  not  much  used  by  modern  writers, 
and  his  peculiar  kind  of  ridicule  is  reserved  now  for 
the  stage.  Yet  he  cannot  be  called  a  writer  of  com- 
edy, like  Molifere.  He  resembles  Kabelais  and  Swift 
more  than  any  other  modern  writers,  having  their 
indignant  wit,  indecent  jokes,  and  pungent  sarcasms. 
Like  Juvenal,  Lucian  paints  the  vices  and  follies  of 
his  time,  and  exposes  the  hypocrisy  that  reigns  in  the 
high  places  of  fashion  and  power.  His  dialogues  have 
been  imitated  by  Fontanelle  and  Lord  Lyttleton,  but 
these  authors  do  not  possess  his  humor  or  pungency. 
Lucian  does  not  grapple  with  great  truths,  but  con- 
tents himself  with  ridiculing  those  who  have  pro- 
claimed them,  and  in  his  cold  cynicism  depreciates 
human  knowledge  and  all  the  great  moral  teachers 
of  mankind.  He  is  even  shallow  and  flippant  upon 
Socrates ;  but  he  was  well  read  in  human  nature, 
and  superficially  acquainted  with  all  the  learning  of 
antiquity.  In  wit  and  sarcasm  he  may  be  compared 
with  Voltaire,  and  his  object  was  the  same,  —  to  de- 
molish and  pull  down  without  substituting  anything 
instead.  His  scepticism  was  universal,  and  extended 
to  religion,  to  philosophy,  and  to  everything  venerated 
and  ancient.  His  purity  of  style  was  admired  by 
Erasmus,   and   his   works   have  been   translated  into 


376  LITERARY  GENIUS: 

most  European  languages.  In  strong  contrast  to  the 
"  Dialogues  "  of  Lucian  is  the  "  City  of  God  "  by  Saint 
Augustine,  in  which  he  demolishes  with  keener  ridi- 
cule all  the  gods  of  antiquity,  but  substitutes  instead 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  God. 

Thus  the  Eomans,  as  well  as  Greeks,  produced  works 
in  all  departments  of  literature  that  will  bear  com- 
parison with  the  masterpieces  of  modern  times.  And 
where  would  have  been  the  literature  of  the  early 
Church,  or  of  the  age  of  the  Eeformation,  or  of  mod- 
ern nations,  had  not  the  great  original  writers  of 
Athens  and  Kome  been  our  school-masters  ?  When 
we  further  remember  that  their  glorious  literature 
was  created  by  native  genius,  without  the  aid  of 
Christianity,  we  are  filled  with  amazement,  and  may 
almost  be  excused  if  we  deify  the  reason  of  man. 
Nor,  indeed,  have  greater  triumphs  of  intellect  been 
witnessed  in  these  our  Christian  times  than  are  pro- 
duced among  that  class  which  is  the  least  influenced 
by  Christian  ideas.  Some  of  the  proudest  trophies  of 
genius  have  been  won  by  infidels,  or  by  men  stigma- 
tized as  such.  Witness  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  Diderot, 
Hegel,  Fichte,  Gibbon,  Hume,  Buckle.  May  there  not 
be  the  greatest  practical  infidelity  with  the  most  ar- 
tistic beauty  and  native  reach  of  thought?  Milton 
ascribes  the  most  sublime  intelligence  to  Satan  and  his 
angels  on  the  point  of  rebellion  against  the  majesty  of 


THE   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.      Z*J1 

Heaven.  A  great  genius  may  be  kindled  even  by  the 
fires  of  discontent  and  ambition,  which  may  quicken 
the  intellectual  faculties  while  consuming  the  soul, 
and  spread  their  devastating  influence  on  the  homes 
and  hopes  of  man. 

Since,  then,  we  are  assured  that  literature  as  well 
as  art  may  flourish  under  Pagan  influences,  it  seems 
certain  that  Christianity  has  a  higher  mission  than 
the  culture  of  the  mind.  Eeligious  scepticism  cannot 
be  disarmed  if  we  appeal  to  Christianity  as  the  test 
of  intellectual  culture.  The  realm  of  reason  has  no 
fairer  fields  than  those  that  are  adorned  by  Pagan 
achievements. 


AUTHORITIES. 

Thebe  are  no  better  authorities  than  the  classical  authors  them- 
selves, and  their  works  must  be  studied  in  order  to  comprehend 
the  spirit  of  ancient  literature.  Modem  historians  of  Roman  litera- 
ture are  merely  critics,  like  Dalhmann,  Schlegel,  Niebuhr,  Muller, 
Mommsen,  Mure,  Arnold,  Dunlap,  and  Thompson.  Nor  do  I 
know  of  an  exhaustive  history  of  Roman  literature  in  the  English 
language;  yet  nearly  every  great  writer,  has  occasional  criticisms 
upon  the  subject  which  are  entitled  to  respect.  The  Germans,  in 
this  department,  have  no  equals. 


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